The Year 2022 in Music

Continuing with our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through Saturday. Today we share music reviews offered by Matt Lynn Digital in 2022.

Seeking to offer the reviewed albums from most recently released to the those released longest ago, the album Wasting Light by Foo Fighters offers gems like These Days and Rope in taking us back to the year 2011 for a hard rock, alternative rock and indie feel.

The album 21 by Adele provided us Rumour Has It and Set Fire to the Rain. The album was also released in 2011 with more of a pop and soul sensibility than offered by Foo Fighters.

Home for Christmas by Sheryl Crow was a 2008 release with music for the end of year holidays. Merry Christmas Baby and White Christmas offer a sense of the range of music presented on this album.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings us to 2006 with Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Among the more enduring songs to come from the album is Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, which was originally released by the band Savatage. The raspy blues singing of Ornament has remained a particular favorite of mine as well.

Revelations by Audioslave was a September of 2006. Broken City and Wide Awake from the album take individual looks into Detroit, Michigan and Hurricane Katrina response in what proved to be the final studio album for the band.

The solo album Highway Companion by Tom Petty was released in July of 2006. The overriding message for Petty here feels like a search for peace, as with songs like Saving Grace, Square One and Jack, among others.

April 2006 witnessed P!nk (Alecia Beth Moore, aka Pink) present the album I’m Not Dead. A dance pop sensibility mixed with rhythm and blues greets us breakthrough songs including Stupid Girls, Who Knew and U + Ur Hand.

We jump back nearly a decade to 1996 with the self-titled album Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow. The songs A Change Would Do You Good, If It Makes You Happy and Everyday is a Winding Road were notably popular songs coming from this effort.

The band Collective Soul named two albums after themselves in their career. We looked at Collective Soul (1995). The World I Know, December, Where the River Flows and Gel were four songs that really resonated with me when the album originally came out.

Weezer continues our trend of albums named for the bands that released them with the album Weezer, commonly is called the Blue Album for the color of album cover. The songs Buddy Holly, Undone [The Sweater Song] and Say It Ain’t So capture some of the magic of an album first released in May of 1994.

The Def Leppard album Hysteria was released in August of 1987. Animal, Love Bites, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Armageddon It and Hysteria were popular in their time for this big hair band that enjoyed a really good run of popularity in the 1980s.

August of 1986 offered the truly breakthrough album for Bon Jovi named Slippery When Wet. You Give Love a Bad Name, Livin’ on a Prayer and Wanted Dead or Alive were definitive hits with the sentimental Never Say Goodbye and I’d Die for You offering really good album support.

A new era for Van Halen began with their album 5150, a transition from their original singer to Sammy Hagar. Released in March of 1986, Why Can’t This Be Love, Dreams and Love Walks In were three of the stronger songs from the bands catalogue in this period.

The Ray Charles album The Spirit of Christmas was our final foray into holiday albums for 2022. With the release of this music coming in 1985, my favorite tune from the bunch is This Time of Year. A appreciate The Little Drummer Boy for its unique interpretation of this holiday standard.

The self-titled album Heart by Heart was released in July of 1985. The release provided a resurgence of sorts for the band with songs including What About Love, Never, These Dreams and Nothin’ at All.

May of 1985 allowed for the release of the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms. Included with the hits for this album rock band were So Far Away, Money for Nothing and Walk of Life.

The Don Henley solo album Building the Perfect Beast was released in November of 1984. The success of the album lands in part with songs including The Boys of Summer and All She Wants to Do Is Dance.

The Bryan Adams album Reckless also was released in November of 1984. Run to You, Heaven, Somebody, Summer of ’69 and the duet with Tina Turner, It’s Only Love, were all hits from this album.

A satirical comedy directed by Rob Reiner makes it to our year in music list for 2022. Following the fictional band is fronted by stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, the movie This Is Spinal Tap (1984) has a lot of fun with the music industry overall.

The Prince and the Revolution album Purple Rain was released in June of 1984. Songs that were popular from this effort included Let’s Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U and the song Purple Rain.

The fifth studio album for The Police, released in June of 1983, was titled Synchronicity. The songs Synchronicity II, Every Breath You Take, King of Pain and Wrapped Around Your Finger were hits for the album, with the song Murder by Numbers being included on cassette and CD versions of the released album.

The debut album Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf was first released in 1977. Well known songs from the album include You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night), Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad and Paradise by the Dashboard Light. The musician and actor known as Meat Loaf, Marvin Lee Aday, died earlier this year.

Rory Gallagher released the album Against the Grain in October of 1975. The album focuses on blues-rock, British blues and regional blues with sounds that at times get into a country adjacent sound. I enjoyed the Huddie Willian Ledbetter written Out on the Western Plains with a shredded Souped-Up Ford offering quite the juxtaposition to boot.

The Van Morrison album Tupelo Honey features so-called blue-eyed soul, AM pop and rhythm and blues. Released in October of 1971, songs to note for me include Wild Night, Old Old Woodstock, Tupelo Honey and Moonshine Whiskey.

Miles Davis Quartet by Miles Davis was released in 1954, having been recorded in two distinct sessions with the trumpet playing Davis the focal point of the album. The hard bop trumpet jazz sound for the album alludes to bop and jazz instrument styles, with the overall sound being one to hear. To offer a sense of the craft here, listen in to When Lights Are Low, Smooch and Blue Haze.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, or similar work to that mentioned above, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Thursday, December 29, 2022

Sheryl Crow and the album ‘Home for Christmas’

With the joy of late fall weather offering the tokens of the coming winter for some northern climates, I was moved to look into a holiday album released November 26th, 2008. The album Home for Christmas by Sheryl Crow of Kennett, Missouri.

(This image shows the Sheryl Crow album cover for Home for Christmas. The album was first released on November 26th, 2008).

Go Tell It on the Mountain is an African American spiritual dealing with the nativity of Jesus Christ. The compilation of the song is attributed to John Wesley Work Jr., with the singing in Crow‘s version incorporating singers suggesting the song’s origins to the middle of the 19th century.

The Christmas Song offers a distinctly jazz feeling to the song originally written by Mel Tormé of Chicago, Illinois and Robert Wells. Nat King Cole of Montgomery, Alabama is credited with the first and definitive version of the song, having recorded it multiple times through the years. Over time, the song has carried the subtitle Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and Merry Christmas to You since the original recording in 1946.

(The ‘definitive’ version of The Christmas Song as performed by Nat King Cole was released in 1961).

White Christmas presents with uplifting horns, guitars and drums that brings a light and fun experience. The uplifting tempo is as catchy as any offering on the album. Original writing credits for the song belong to Irving Berlin, born in the Russian Empire of the 19th century.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas offers an unexpectedly older fashion instrumentation that would land favorably long ago. This is a welcome addition to this album in the offering of what becomes so many distinctive musical presentations throughout the album. The original presentation in 1943 by lyricist Kim Gannon of Brooklyn, New York and composer Walter Kent New York City, New York included the singing of Bing Crosby, of Tacoma, Washington, with John Scott Trotter & His Orchestra playing the instruments.

(Bing Crosby sang the first released version of I’ll Be Home for Christmas in 1943).

Merry Christmas Baby brings a clear pop sensibility to a studio recording featuring keyboard play that gives the song a fusion rhythm and blues and jazz flavor. The original writing credits belong to Johnny Moore of Selma, Alabama and Lou Baxter.

The Bells of St. Mary’s includes music written by A. Emmett Adams with lyrics by Douglas Furber, dating back to 1917. The sound is very modern, with a vocal range offered by Sheryl Crow that brings a pleasing effect open to continued listening.

The Blue Christmas as presented here offers a distinctly jazzy and gospel fusion to a song most famously performed by Elvis Presley, originally of Tupelo, Mississippi. Writing credits rest with Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson.

(Blue Christmas as performed by Elvis Presley made the song as popular as ever in the United States).

O Holy Night opens with a partial singing of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, with the latter accounting for nearly 1-minute and 10-seconds of the 3-minute and 39-second performance. Distinct production differences points to what feels like performances intended to have been separate. The singing proves inspired and moving, making for a rewarding experience.

As written by Sheryl Crow, the song There Is a Star That Shines Tonight has perhaps the most authentically true song on the album. Strongly piano based with stringed instrument accompaniment, the quiet sweetness invokes celestial inspiration, missing one’s loved ones and the inspiration of the newborn spiritual king.

Hello My Friend, Hello offers a gentle meditation of friendship and winter’s regeneration. The accompanying instrumentation offers a sweet accompaniment to Crow‘s singing. Bill Botrell is credited with writing this song.

(Sheryl Crow‘s album Home for Christmas was first released on November 26th, 2008).

The final song for the 2008 release of the Home for Christmas album is All Through the Night, a sleepy meditation of a song with seemingly Welsh origins under the name Ar Hyd Y Nos. As noted here, the song “is still sung in Welsh, especially by male voice choirs, [although] it is better known by its English title “All Through The Night.”

Matt – Saturday, November 26, 2022

Sheryl Crow and the self-titled album ‘Sheryl Crow’

On Tuesday, September 24th, 1996, singer / songwriter Sheryl Crow‘s second studio album, named Sheryl Crow, was released. The album offers a mixture of styles including Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock and American Trad Rock. The album feels as relevant today as it did when released 26-years ago this week.

(Shown is the album cover for Sheryl Crow‘s second studio album, named Sheryl Crow).

As quoted by Songfacts here, Sheryl Crow described Maybe Angels “as “an extraterrestrial yarn that finds Kurt Cobain joining John Lennon in heaven’s winged choir.”” The opening song from Crow‘s second studio album feels a bit trippy lyrically and musically, with the production choices backing this up.

A Change Would Do You Good charted eighth in the United Kingdom and nineteenth in the United States. Written by Crow of Kennett, Missouri, guitarist Jeff Trott of San Mateo, California, and drummer Brian MacLeod of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the song conveys several loosely related yet lightly presented changes in life that can be made to improve the experience of life. Musically, the song feels playful.

(A Change Would Do You Good was written in New Orleans, Louisiana).

Home offers the song of heartbreak in a marriage that simply is not working. There’s an absence of fulfillment with dreams deferred and pain for both spouses. Musically, the song drifts into ballad with the instrumental sensibilities leaning toward a country influence.

(Home was the last single from the Sheryl Crow self-titled album. The single was released on October 6th, 1997).

Sweet Rosalyn brings more of a funk influence to romance just out of reach. The lyrical twist of a priest aiming to proselytize the musical object of the song, Rosalyn, strikes me as unexpected and a bit amusing. The message I hear is aim for better, fuller love.

If It Makes You Happy charted ninth in the United Kingdom and tenth in the United States. As mentioned here, “[t]his song describes a person who seems depressed or upset no matter what happens…This won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.” While sung at higher pitch with more acoustical energy than Home, the song emotionally hits me from a satisfyingly similar place to the third song from the self-titled album.

(If It Makes You Happy was the first song released from Sheryl Crow‘s studio album named Sheryl Crow).

Redemption Day opens with an intriguing reverberating acoustic sound that includes interesting percussion that I really appreciate. Crow‘s performance, as mentioned here, was “as a politicized song about national redemption.” Johnny Cash would cover the song as something “about personal redemption.”

Hard to Make a Stand charted twenty-second in the United Kingdom. In offering an uplifting sonic feeling like A Change Would Do You Good, the song almost responds to the feedback that change might help. As mentioned here, Hard to Make a Stand “seems to look at the world through the eyes of a person trying to make sense of this world. It mixes the morbid with a strange sense of hope. Plenty of black humor to go around, as well.”

(The third single released from Sheryl Crow‘s second studio album, Sheryl Crow, was Hard to Make a Stand).

Everyday is a Winding Road opens with refreshingly light bongos. The optimism about feeling closer to fine in a world that doesn’t necessarily make sense charted twelfth in the United Kingdom and eleventh in the United States. The perspective offered here called this song a “bit of fortune cookie wisdom.”

(Everyday Is a Winding Road was the second song released in support of the Sheryl Crow album, Sheryl Crow).

Placing my finger on the musical influence for Love is a Good Thing proved a little bit of a stretch, though the choice of organ and then synthesizer / keyboard really impressed me. An interesting note, mentioned here, was that Walmart banned this song over a provocative lyric included in the song. “The store refused to carry the album unless [Sheryl Crow] changed the lyric. Crow refused.”

Oh Marie calls attention to another girl lost in one-night stands and reputation makers. The singer’s perspective questions how this could bring happiness, despite wishing Marie best. To me, I am also hearing Crow question for herself what love is, though tackling that question with answers about what love is not.

The musical introduction for Superstar interests me as much as the message the song, if not more. Crow offers the notion with Superstar another bite of the romantic apple in noting that a celebrity romance has its appeal, though the brilliance at the beginning wears off. The question again feels like “what is love?” A step further, it feels like “what can make love sustainable after the infatuation melts away?”

The Book offers a musically mournful sound and message that interests me so much. The idea of a singer / songwriter becoming the public telling of a romantic experience both signals a violation of trust and a betrayal. My feeling is that Sheryl Crow credibly offers those painful feelings for the betrayal is notably one direction, as in there aren’t details of Crow‘s partners in the music Crow presents.

That Ordinary Morning opens with Sheryl Crow singing in a throaty, high key with a nightclub echo and musical accompaniment reminiscent of a confession is striking. The lyrics coupled with deliberate drums and piano speak knowingly of an experience where Crow woke first and moved on. The lyrics feel to me like a mixture of convincing the singer and us that the previous night’s intimacy was passionate, deliberate and now, done and behind. That this song is placed besides the songs that preceded it, and ends the album, speaks strongly to a message of love, pride, dignity and a still continuing search for love.

Matt – Saturday, September 24, 2022