How many crows does it take to change a globe session into a bright and illuminating musical opus? On this, her third album, Sheryl Crow decided to try and do most of the work herself. Having written all but one of the songs on the album, mostly in conjunction with Jeff Trott, Sheryl then set up her own New York studio and landed up playing most of the instruments on the album as well as producing it.

Her first two ultra-successful albums, 1994's 'Tuesday Night Music Club' and 1996's 'Sheryl Crow' were always going to be difficult acts to follow. The 'Tuesday Night' album, named for the gang of musos she used to jam with, vaulted Sheryl Crow into the forefront of the emerging female singer-songwriter genre alongside Lucinda Williams, Jewel and Heather Nova. Packed with great songs and a loose, casual feel 'Tuesday Night', and the slightly darker eponymously-titled follow-up sold in excess of 13 million copies and earned five Grammies.

The 'Globe Sessions' album, however, doesn't seem to have the same quality as its predecessors. With artists like Benmont Tench (piano), Wendy Melvoin (guitar) and Lisa Germano (violin) adding their expertise to the arrangements, the sound and production on the album are faultless. Yet, it is the songs on display here that disappoint. The first single, 'My Favourite Mistake' is vintage Crow with its tough but tender vocals, clanging guitars and rousing chorus. But the rest of the tunes seem to suffer from gross blandless. Nothing as strong as 'All I Wanna Do' or 'Strong Enough' sticks its head out among these 12 songs. Typically, 'There Goes The Neighbourhood', 'Riverwide' and 'Anything But Down' are all unexceptional melodies with full production makeovers.

The one cover here is of the Bob Dylan song 'Mississippi' which was left off his recent 'Time out Of Mind' album but makes a glowing appearance here, showing up the rest of the songs for the uninspired ditties that they are. Crow is so concerned with just getting through Dylan's mass of lyrics on 'Mississippi' that she forgets to add some emotional interpretation to the song.

While full credit is due to Sheryl Crow for attempting to do everything herself on this album, a little creative collaboration should make all the difference on her next album. So how many Crows does it take to change 'The Globe Sessions' into a good album? In this case, the answer unfortunately is definitely more than just the one.

Stephen "Sugar" Segerman

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