CROW, SHERYL

TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB is a striking debut recording, teeming with the kind of musical curiosity all too rare in contemporary pop--all animated by Crow's remarkable storytelling skills. From the Beatles overtones of her freedom cry "Run Baby Run" to the sweet pedal-steel inflected gospel of "I Shall Believe," Sheryl Crow brings a post-modern country sensibility to bear on her material (as in the touching "No One Said It Would Be Easy"), more often as a flavor in the stew than as the primary ingredient (like her hit single "All I Wanna Do," which evokes the country cum blue strains of Maria "Midnight At The Oasis" Muldaur). As for her narrative stylings, on "Leaving Las Vegas" she mixes her metaphors to equate relationships to games of chance, tolling themes of duty and resignation that also resonate throughout the jazzy "We Do What We Can." Her characters are up and down, but as the surreal "The Na-Na Song" and the smarmy "What I Can Do For You" make clear, you can confront evil and walk away, to rise again another day.

Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.