Sheryl No.

I've thought long and hard about whether to write this. I don't want to send out any unnecessary negativity into the world, where there is plenty already. I have nothing against Sheryl Crow as a person. She went through a very public break-up, she battled breast cancer for God's sake, she adopted a baby, she does good work for charity. I give her a lot of credit for how she lives her life. I cannot, however, give her a lot of credit for her music. I decided I had to write about this because at times I feel I am the only person on the planet who has not fallen under the Sheryl spell. Granted, I have not listened to her new record in its entirety yet, but what I've heard - dare I say it - I don't like.

She's being given all kinds of credit for this "stripped down," "raw" song she plays as the album opener, called "God Bless This Mess." It's just her and her acoustic guitar and it's supposed to be all political and passionately anti-war. It has lyrics like, "My brother came home yesterday / From somewhere far away / He doesn't look like I remember / As he just stares off into space / He must have seen some ugly things / He cannot seem to say." Ok. To me, this comes off like high school notebook poetry. And when you listen to the song, it sounds like the first song Dar Williams ever wrote in 10th grade. She's trying to go for sort of a spare bluegrass feel; what may feel original to a pop singer comes off amateur to the listener. A bluegrass singer/songwriter she ain't. Then there's another song, "Love is Free," which I have a really hard time swallowing. Coming from a person who has purchased the most idyllic comfortable life imaginable on a huge beautiful rural ranch with dozens of horses and acres of solitude (do I sound jealous? I am), it's difficult to listen to lines that are supposed to be from the perspective of someone devastated by Hurricane Katrina: "Greasy fingers in your jelly jar / They jack your money while you sleep in your car ... Devil take your money / Money got no hold on me / Everybody making love 'cause love is free." Doesn't bowl me over with its sincerity.

Blender gave her only 2.5 stars, which I was relieved to see, but they went on to basically say that she just aims too low and "camouflages her leftist ideas," "hoping the red-staters won't notice she's gone pink." I don't think she was just aiming low and softening her message because she thinks people can't take her radical ideas. This isn't exactly radical stuff. I don't think she's capable of more political depth. I think that high school poetry was about as deep as she gets and, frankly, it's lame. She was great fun back in the '90's singing about how all she wanted to do was have some fun, and wondering whether some guy was strong enough to be her man. I think she should stick with that. Some publication compared her to Tom Petty as being a critically unassailable yet unwaveringly successful pop artist. Why does she deserve this crown? Just because she plays an instrument and writes her own songs? I think that's setting the bar kind of low.

Offensive to the ear? No. Deserving of universal critical adoration? Heck no.