Shery Crow
If It Makes You Happy
(A&M Records 1875)

I'm not the world's biggest Sheryl Crow fan (that honor is held by the gentleman who also holds the record for the world's biggest man, standing at eleven feet tall and over 45,000 pounds – he will not likely live to see his fourteenth birthday, but he loves Sheryl Crow), but I bought this EP on a whim at a used CD shop, probably because the cover art gives the impression that Sheryl Crow is about to blow me.

I remember not liking the song that much when it was out, but I have to say it really is one of the more tightly written and subtle pop songs of the past few years. It develops slowly to a great payoff of a chorus, and despite some precious lyrics, at least it has nothing as stupidly silly as that line from "Everyday is a Winding Road" about driving with a vending machine repairman.

Actually, the line "Well okay, I still get stoned" is one of my favorite lines ever, especially given the mixture of confidence and resignation with which it is delivered. Great song. This CD has the album version, which is quite a bit longer than the radio edit but not to say overlong.

It's like "Philadelphia Freedom" or any Elton John single that tracks at over 5 minutes – generally, those unfold as they should, the repetitions rarely seeming unnecessary.

The b-sides are very likable, though a bit hodgepodge. "Keep on Growing," also featured on the Boys on the Side soundtrack, sounds like a lost Partridge Family song – the picture-perfect example of a session outtake that clearly shouldn't have been on an album, so it gets dumped on a soundtrack. It's a Clapton composition, but it's arranged like a Tony Romeo song.

A quiet cover of "I'm Going to Be a Wheel Someday" is benign and nice, and then a live acoustic-y version of "No One Said it Would be Easy" (from Sheryl's first album) is pleasant enough.

Throughout, her voice is really the star attraction. Sheryl Crow fans probably f'n love this EP, though those ambivalent toward her, like myself, will simply think "This is pretty good, she's better than I gave her credit for."

The title track is a real keeper, though, along with the extra smokin' cover photo – Sheryl Crow is the most enticing oral sex icon since Mary-Kate Olsen. What? What'd I say?

Review by James Tiny-Dynamine