Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club

Sheryl Crow's proper debut--an earlier, slicker record was scrapped in favor of Tuesday Night--occasionally reaches too far in attempting Significance, as when the album opens by name-checking Aldous Huxley. Usually, though, Crow and her band of L.A. session and singer/songwriter collaborators strike just the right tone. The "Stuck in the Middle with You" homage of "All I Wanna Do," the clanking guitar riff of "Can't Cry Anymore," and the funky threat of "What I Can Do for You" meld perfectly with the lyrics, resulting in a peak of mainstream pop-rock. --Rickey Wright