''Be Myself'' is the tenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American singer-songwriter

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...

. The album was released on April 21, 2017, by Wylie Songs and Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Crow and Jeff Trott, who also worked with Crow on her self-titled 1996 album and 1998's '' The Globe Sessions'', it features a return to a more rock-driven sound following Crow's 2013 country album, '' Feels Like Home''.

Release

Singles

The album's lead single, "Halfway There", was released on March 3, 2017.

Critical reception

''Be Myself'' received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 10 reviews.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

of AllMusic rated the album four out of five stars and calls it "set of strong, sophisticated pop." Writing for '' Rolling Stone'' and rating the album three out of five stars, Rob Sheffield calls it "excellent" and "a full-blown return to her fierce rock-queen glory." Dave Simpson from '' The Guardian'' gave 3 out of 5 stars and stated "After a short-lived dabble in country music, Be Myself reunites Sheryl Crow with 1990s collaborators Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake and returns to the sassy, carefree, stripped down folk-pop-rock that brought her massive success in that era" Sal Cinquemani from ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "''Be Myself'' might lack the quirks that made ''Sheryl Crow'' so distinctive (it opened with a song about aliens, after all), but the album proves that some alliances can outlast even the latest planet-shrinking technology".

Track listing

All songs written by

and Jeff Trott, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic. Musicians * Doyle Bramhall II – soloist, vocal harmony * Gary Clark Jr. – electric guitar, soloist *

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celeste, ...

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, piano, tambourine, toy piano, vocals, Wurlitzer * Mark Douthit – saxophone * Fred Eltringham –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

handclapping A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...

, percussion, tambourine *

Audley Freed Audley Freed is a guitarist from Burgaw, North Carolina. Early life, family and education Freed's father was in the US Army, so the family relocated often during his early years. Eventually the family settled in Burgaw, North Carolina in the 1 ...

– acoustic guitar, soloist * Toby Gad – bass guitar,

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

* Josh Grange –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

baritone guitar The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Schec ...

, electric guitar,

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

, piano * Barry Green – trombone * Robert Kearns – bass guitar * The McCrary Sisters – background vocals * Adam Minkoff – keyboards * Doug Moffet –

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

* Steve Patrick – trumpet * Andrew Petroff – bells, drum brushes, drum loop, acoustic guitar, handclapping, keyboards, percussion,

shaker Shaker or Shakers may refer to: Religious groups * Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect * Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination Objects and instruments * Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone * Cock ...

, strings,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, tambourine, Wurlitzer * Rick Purcell – handclapping * David Rossi – strings * Tim Smith – background vocals * Jeff Trott – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, electric guitar,

acoustic-electric guitar An acoustic-electric guitar is an acoustic guitar fitted with a microphone or a magnetic or piezoelectric pickup. They are used in a variety of music genres where the sound of an acoustic guitar is desired but more volume is required, especiall ...

, Moog synthesizer, pump organ, sitar,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

, soloist, SynthAxe, tom-tom, vocal harmony, background vocals,

wah wah guitar A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...

, Wurlitzer Technical personnel * Tchad Blake – engineer, mixing, photography * Drew Bollman – engineer * Sheryl Crow –

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

– mastering * Frank Maddocks –

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

, design * Andrew Petroff – engineer * Rick Purcell – studio technician * Matt Rausch – engineer * David Rossi – string arrangements * Mark Seliger – photography * Jeff Trott – producer * Alberto Vaz – engineer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Sheryl Crow albums Warner Records albums