Sheryl Crow: The Very Best Of ...

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

Herald rating: * * *

There's something very knitting-pattern cover about the photo of Crow on the front of this round-up of a decade of the American singer-songwriter's hits since she emerged as a late bloomer on her 1993 breakthrough Tuesday Night Music Club.

Which makes sense as she has — as the 16 tracks inside attest — stuck to her knitting since. The albums since have been solid rather than spectacular performers, with her rootsy Californian pop not veering far from the blueprint laid down on that debut album.

The songs from it included here — Leaving Las Vegas, All I Wanna Do, Strong Enough, I Shall Believe and Run, Baby, Run — remain her most affecting. Since then she has managed a regular supply of pleasant pop-rock anthems with the likes of Every Day Is a Winding Road and If It Makes You Happy. One of her two new tracks
include a cover of The First Cut Is the Deepest, the title of which reinforces what we were saying before about her debut album rather nicely.

(A&M)