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Sheryl Crow’s greatest hits package is practically a soundtrack to the Clinton years as the roots rocker transformed into uncomfortable pop star before going country by the mid-2000s. Her pop/rock years, essentially the mid-90s, produced a string of surprisingly durable, hook-filled bangers like “A Change Would Do You Good” and “Every Day is a Winding Road.” She was never an artist who was about changing the sonic possibilities of the genre, and she was at times a bit too reverent and thirsty for authenticity (check how many tribute albums she appears on for Boomer rock acts), but she knew her way around a strong melody and a nice guitar lick.
The Very Best of Sheryl Crow really does exemplify the best of her glory days without a sizable missing or any addition that proves questionable. The material is uniformly good even if some of it does reveal the limitations of her singing voice (“The Difficult Kind” finds her a little strained), questionable choice of material (Kid Rock duet “Picture” is an army of love-done-me-wrong clichés), or silly lyrical detours (“Steve McQueen” is an eye-roller). And yes, she’s still chasing authenticity by dusting off a Cat Stevens hit for her own purposes, but it at least sounds right at home snuggly buffered by her own material.
DOWNLOAD: “I Shall Believe,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Light in Your Eyes”
