Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sheryl Crow is not one to mince words about the fate of the long-form album - and it seems she's not exactly filled with optimism about the future of the traditional LP.
In an interview for the upcoming May 2024 issue of Red, Crow explained, “I still think [creating albums] is a waste of time and money! People don’t listen to records as a full body of work."
Concerning how that stance fits in with the release of her forthcoming twelfth studio album Evolution, she continued, "but I had all these songs that felt very timely. So, I thought, 'Okay, I’m not going to make a conventional album, thinking about the beginning, middle and end.’ Instead, it’s a compilation of new songs."
It is not the first time Crow has expressed her dissatisfaction with the traditional way of releasing music. After the release of her last album Threads in 2019 she claimed she was done with album-making altogether and instead wanted to focus on songs at her pace with no pressure to create more than needed.
Never miss a story — sign up for the Q newsletter for the latest music news on all your favorite artists, all in one place.
Speaking to Q in December 2023, Crow exclusively revealed:
"I think at my age, having fun is really important. I don't want to overthink it. You know I've had numerous conversations with my manager [Scooter Weintraub] about what it's like to be 61, and put your heart and soul on a piece of art and know that nobody's ever gonna hear it: 'No, it's never gonna get on a radio station.'
"I don't even know what gets on radio anymore. But it's all based on social media and playlists and streams. And so you go, 'Okay, how do I not invest my emotion and my self-worth on what I'm putting out, knowing that it's gonna qualify as a fail in comparison to what it was before social media?'
"And it's just something I've realized I just have to do for me and have it be fun. I think at my age it matters to my mental health as well, to not overthink it, to not take it personally that I'm not played right alongside Boygenius and Taylor Swift. It's not gonna happen, you know, no matter what the quality of my art might be."
Evolution is out March 29, and will be followed by a world tour kicking off on June 13 at The Piece Hall in Halifax, UK and winding through to November 23 at LoanDepot Park in Miami, FL. Tickets for all the shows are available here.
