Sheryl Crow
's country makeover
Feels Like Home
didn't click commercially in 2013, so she decided to radically shift directions for this 2017 successor,
Be Myself
. The title alone is a tacit admission that she's returning to her roots, reuniting with producers
Jeff Trott
and
Tchad Blake
, the pair who helmed 1996's
and 1998's
The Globe Sessions
.
Crow
last worked with
Trott
on 2002's
C'mon, C'mon
, and
deliberately mirrors that album's sunny vibe while also nodding at specific songs from
's past. "Roller Skate" grooves to a beat that echoes "All I Want to Do" and "Strangers Again" struts like "If It Makes You Happy" -- sly winks that acknowledge
is happy to embrace her past. Perhaps this retro move would seem desperate if
didn't seem so enthusiastic reviving this collaboration. With
Blake
in tow, she's happy to embrace her eccentricity in addition to her fondness for big pop hooks -- a combination that fuels
as surely as it did
or
. Compared to those two '90s records, this 2017 album isn't quite as daring -- a revival is by definition a safe bet, plus
's long since reined in her purple prose -- but one of the charms of
is what lies along the fringe. Most of the record's 11 songs are graced by provocative sounds lurking at the margins of the mix -- something that sounds like a music box on "Halfway There," a saloon piano on "Rest of Me," all the compressed guitars as percussion -- that help elevate this set of strong, sophisticated pop into something special. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine