She Wants To Have Fun

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The '70s guitar music now known as classic rock wasn't born classic. It became classic through a combination of radio marketing--the classic-rock-station label was born in 1983--and the happy associations formed by its mostly white, middle-class boomer listeners. These associations are so culturally pervasive that hearing, say, American Woman, spurs memories of road trips, sun-baked convertibles and pull-tab Schlitz, even among people too young to drink.

Sheryl Crow's decision to make her fourth album, C'Mon, C'Mon, a paean to classic rock fits her career arc perfectly. Since her debut, Crow has deftly projected herself as a world-weary girl who likes a good time. On her previous album, 1998's brooding The Globe Sessions, the balance between sullen and saucy got out of whack. Here Crow tries to set things right by not bumming anybody out. Starting with the exuberant Steve McQueen, she launches into a relentless pursuit of good times and an echo of her first hit, singing, "I want to rock and roll this party/ I still wanna have some fun." When the chorus arrives, backup singers make a Hoo-hoo! train-whistle sound. Steve Miller is smiling somewhere.

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Don Henley, Stevie Nicks and Lenny Kravitz (the original rock time traveler) lend vocals and classic chops to C'Mon, C'Mon, but the album doesn't lack veracity. Most tracks feel smothered by the lite discipline Crow imagines is required of an instant classic. Soak Up the Sun is another tribute to high spirits, but as with most of the record, good times and good lyrics prove incompatible. The line "It's not having what you want/It's wanting what you've got," belongs in a high school yearbook. Songs such as You're an Original and It's So Easy sound familiar--by design. But that familiarity, meant to conjure up breezy sense memories, sucks any tension out of the music.

Only the title track, a jilted-lover jam, manages to break free. Crow gets her voice under the song, and the sing-along chorus--"Break my heart again/For old times' sake"--actually inspires singing along. For a moment, the summer sun feels as if it just might warm the back of your neck forever.