Sheryl Crow
The Unreleased Album 1991/92
Source: promo cassette > ?
Remastered by Mr. Sifter, Aug. 2025
Produced by Hugh Padgham.
01. Near Me
02. When Love Is Over
03. You Want It All
04. Hundreds of Tears
05. The Last Time
06. Borrowed Time
07. All Kinds of People
08. Father Sun
09. What Does it Matter
10. Indian Summer
11. I Will Walk With You
12. Love You Blind
13. Father Sun (from 'Beyond Words' compilation)
14. Hundreds Of Tears (from 'Point Break' soundtrack)
If anyone has a lossless version of "Welcome To The Real Life" please drop it in the comments!
After Crow began her career in the late '80's as a back-up singer for (among others) Michael Jackson and Don Henley, she achieved her own stardom with her multi-platinum debut album Tuesday Night Music Club, which was released in 1993. But Crow actually recorded an earlier album in 1991, which was intended for release as her debut album in September of 1992. Neither Crow nor her label, A&M Records, were happy with the finished album. Neither party felt that its slick pop sounds represented Crow as an artist, and the album was shelved. However, this unreleased self-titled Sheryl Crow album (not to be confused with her eponymous 1996 sophomore release) was briefly circulated by A&M in ’92 as a promo cassette. The album remains unreleased three decades later, but it was naturally much-bootlegged after Crow’s success.
The music on this album sounds very different than the genre-blending music that Crow would later become known for. It was co-produced by Crow with Hugh Padgham, who was known for producing mega-selling ‘80’s albums by Genesis and The Police, as well as solo albums by Phil Collins and Sting. The Sheryl Crow album was given the type of high gloss that Padgham had imparted to Collins and Genesis in the mid-‘80’s, loaded with heavy synthesizer sounds and exaggerated reverb. Crow’s vocals were smoothened and sweetened for pop-singer presentability, in contrast to the more natural delivery found on most of her works. The polished presentation made many of the songs sound as though they were designed for movie soundtracks; in fact, one of them – the weak power-ballad “Hundreds Of Tears” – appeared on the soundtrack for Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action thriller Point Break, in slightly longer form. The unreleased Sheryl Crow album is easy on the ears, but feels somewhat hollow at its core. Crow made the right decision in turning away from this album’s synth-pop, which was on its way out of fashion at the time, and instead pursuing the adult-alternative direction of the prosperous Tuesday Night Music Club.
The songwriting on this album is less sophisticated than that of much of Crow’s later work. Crow co-wrote all of the songs here, but found better partners to write with later. The lyrics of “All Kinds Of People” and “Love You Blind” have the sort of neo-hippie vibe that Lenny Kravitz was into at the time. If the lyrics of “Father Sun” are to be taken literally, the song seems to be about sun worship. That song was also recorded – and done better – by Wynonna Judd in 1993. “All Kinds Of People” is not the same song that Crow recorded many years later for the various artists benefit album Marlo Thomas and Friends: Thanks & Giving in 2004. However, this unreleased album’s “All Kinds Of People” was later recorded by Tina Turner and also by the Christian country singer Susan Ashton, both in 1996; Ashton also covered “Hundreds Of Tears” the same year.
Among the Sheryl Crow album’s high points are “Near Me” and “The Last Time”, which could almost pass for songs from Tuesday Night Music Club if they had just a bit less shine on ‘em. “I Will Walk With You” comes across like Nick Of Time-era Bonnie Raitt, with tasteful Gospel and soul flavoring. “What Does It Matter” features background vocals by Don Henley, on whose The End Of The Innocence tour Crow had sung background vocals. (The promo cassette copies of Sheryl Crow came with a press release from A&M Records, with a blurb from Henley stating: “She's one of the best female singers there is right now. Period, bar none”). A vaguely Clapton-like guitar sound gives a boost to “Love You Blind”. And it’s nice to hear Sheryl rocking out a little on “You Want It All”.
Footnote: A Crow song titled “Welcome To The Real Life” was used in the 1991 Brian Bosworth action movie Stone Cold. That song was reportedly an outtake from the sessions for this unreleased Sheryl Crow album.
