Sheryl Crow’s Pick You Up has a release date, a lead single and a message about freedom that she is not leaving to interpretation. Rolling Stone reports the album arrives on 9 October, and the record was crafted alongside Jeff Trott, described by Rolling Stone as her longtime collaborator.
The launch single is ‘Freedom Bus’, which features Jesse Welles. It comes packaged with some of the more direct language Crow has put to a press release in a while, and it sets the tone for where this record sits politically and emotionally.
Sheryl Crow on Freedom, Connection and ‘Chapped Hearts’
‘I do not take freedom lightly because our freedom has been paid for in the lives of others throughout history,’ Crow said, ‘and that is something I wish we could all remember when we are interacting with each other.’ She continued: ‘Our dialogue and ability to disagree must reflect what has been paid for in the blood, sweat, and tears of those who fought for every man and woman to be created equal and to enjoy the rights that our constitution has allowed each of us.’
It is the kind of statement that sits at the emotional core of the album. Alongside the political framing, Crow describes Pick You Up as ‘commentary on being human and wanting connection.’ She adds: ‘There is a lot of chaos all around us and I definitely find myself feeling alone.’
The remedy she is offering is musical. ‘My wish is that whoever hears these songs feels the hope I feel when I sing them,’ she said. ‘I hope these songs feel like a soothing moisturizer on our chapped hearts.’ That last line tells you everything about the register she is going for, warm, a bit wry, genuinely tender.
Sheryl Crow Pick You Up and a Return to Her ’90s Roots
According to Consequence, Pick You Up delves into personal reflection and sees Crow returning to the rock Americana singer-songwriter sound that made so many people fall in love with her in the ’90s. That framing makes sense when you look at the collaborator. Teaming back up with Jeff Trott (the partnership behind some of the most enduring work of that era) suggests Crow is not chasing a sound so much as returning to one she has always trusted.
It is worth noting what this record is not. There is no attempt here to retrofit her catalogue into something algorithmically contemporary. A seven-track album with titles like ‘Freight Train’, ‘Flat Earth’ and ‘Heaven Help Us’ reads like someone working with purpose and economy, making the thing they wanted to make without worrying about running time or streaming metrics.
The Full Tracklist for Pick You Up
The album runs to seven tracks:
01 Freight Train
02 Perfect
03 Pick You Up
04 Flat Earth
05 I’ve Got Your Number
06 Heaven Help Us
07 Freedom Bus (ft. Jesse Welles)
‘Freedom Bus’ closing the record rather than opening it is an interesting structural choice. As the title track of the lead single campaign and the most overtly political moment on the tracklist, putting it last gives the album somewhere to land. Everything that comes before it, the personal reflection, the rock Americana textures, the search for connection in a chaotic moment, feeds into it.
Pick You Up is available to pre-order now via Rough Trade at £26.99, with the full release set for 9 October.
