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Sheryl Crow - C'mon America

Sheryl Crow inhabits a somewhat unusual place in the American consciousness. Halfway between marketing and indecision she's landed the job of part-rock chick, part-singer songwriter and part eye-candy. On the back sleeve of C'mon America she's decked out in designer distressed denim touting a telecaster, every inch the sexy stadium rocker. But by its very nature stadium rock fills a corporate rather than cultural void: all big emotions and vague posturing to appeal to the greatest number of customers. So does our Sheryl fit the bill?

Firstly the music. Crow's greatest strengths are in the minutiae. The success of her biggest hit, ''All I Wanna Do'' was due in no small part to her ability to paint a beautifully seedy picture of a West Coast bar. Writ large across a diamond screen in front of 40,000 screaming middle Americans the song (and many others) becomes reduced to a vacuous sing-along. The band of polished session players (again, you feel, designer-togged to look like real rock musicians) never miss a cue and, as with many recent DVDs, post production magic seems to have not only removed any hint of vocal glitches, but also removed any hint of emotion.

It's a real shame as Crow isn't a poor performer by any means. But time and again one can't help feeling that the whoops and invitations to sing are a little forced. Perhaps a more intimate setting may have brought out her real strengths. Not only this but one feels dubious about the virtues of seeing la Crow decked out like some marketing man's idea of grunge-gone-foxy. The camera lingers a little too often on the Crow derriere, as if saying: hey, if you think the music's bland, check out the curves!

Double shame then, as Sheryl's both accomplished as a musician and way above the need to sell her product with flirtation. Of course, for those whose sole gig-going experience consists of standing in a football stadium, this is the real deal. For anyone who knows what live music's really about, stay away...