The Soundtrack to My Life

Detours

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            Crow brought back Bill Bottrell, who produced her first album, 1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club. “Shine Over Babylon” is an example of his masterful skills; this song alone could have fit right on Crow’s first record with its slick sound and passionate vocal. The production and vibe take me back to Crow’s early hits, “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Run Baby Run.” “Shine Over Babylon” is a song that seems as if it was written through a stream of consciousness. There are so many metaphors; I could study it for hours. Crow writes about global warming, over-crowded schools, and war with an over-all message of hope flowing throughout. A long time ago Bob Dylan wrote a song called “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.” Dylan said that every line in that song could be the beginning of a new song. “Shine Over Babylon” is one of those rare gems that will remain as timeless as Dylan’s “Hard Rain.”

            “God Bless This Mess” opens the album with Crow solo on acoustic guitar and vocals. Again, I can hear Dylan’s influence loud and clear on this song. The song tells three stories—one of a solider that came home a different person, another with the message that everyone is so busy “doing this and doing that” that they miss out on life. The third emotional verse brings back images of September 11. Crow sings, “The president spoke words of comfort with teardrops in his eyes, then he led us as a nation into a war all based on lies.”

            An immediate stand-out song for me is “Diamond Ring.” Crow’s heartache bleeds through her raspy voice, and you can almost hear her break down. “Diamonds may be sweet,” Crow sings, “But to me they just bring on cold feet.”

            In “Peace Be Upon Us,” Crow seems to be channeling John Lennon. I can hear her speaking for her generation when she sings, “If we speak in tongues of love but we kill in the name of God, how can we profess to own His name and still be so lost.” It also contains a beautiful duet with Arabic singer Ahmed Al Hirmi, and ends with both Crow and Hirmi singing “Peace be upon us” in both Arabic and English.

            “Gasoline” is a futuristic story about the world fighting the rising gas prices with riots and rebellion against the government. Sadly, this fiction fable could come true in the very near future, along with the “sweltering heat” of global warming. Crow is clearly aware of this and sings, “I’ve got a message and a megaphone, and I’ll scream it to the death.” I envision a future Grammy award show collaboration with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on this tune.

            In “Make it Go Away (Radiation Song),” Crow wrote about her experience battling breast cancer. Any woman or man who has gone through cancer will be able to relate to the fear of death, the questions of “Why” and the silent prayers while lying on the table. Crow sings, “Lay on the table, begging for another chance, but I was a good girl, I can’t understand how to make it go away.”  The song ends with Crow’s up-front vocal singing “Make it go away” while she does a second, more haunting vocal that seems to be screaming back to the first person, “Make it go away.”

            Crow adopted a baby last spring, which seems to have inspired her urgency to get her messages heard. He makes his first appearance on record during the end of “Lullaby For Wyatt,” the closing song on Detours. On Crow’s 1996 song “Redemption Day,” she sings, “It’s everywhere a baby cries…freedom.” Her son was able to give her the freedom to say exactly what she was feeling without the need to censor herself. I believe this is her best album since 1998’s The Globe Sessions, and I would even go as far as proclaiming it her best work to date. Throughout Detours, her themes of peace, love and freedom show an awakening for her. My interpretation of Crow’s over-all message is a need to wake-up and experience all the happiness, sadness, and pain that life offers, as opposed to living with distractions to block out all emotion. Detours provides the listener with a seamless flow of diverse songwriting and music, and a lot to think about.