Sheryl Crow, “Evolution.”

Nine-time Grammy winner Sheryl Crow is showing no signs of slowing down with her 11th album, Evolution. She had said after releasing 2018’s Threads that she was done making albums. But if her return with Evolution is proof of anything, it’s that some introspection and solitude during an unprecedented global pandemic can ignite a new creative spark.

So what led her to make another long-player? Perhaps the answer lies right at the beginning of the album’s title track: “Turned on the radio and there it was/ A song that sounded like something I wrote/ The voice and melody were haunting me/ So familiar I thought it was a joke.” The song is about the way artificial intelligence can seemingly replicate us, so maybe she wanted to reclaim her voice.

Produced and co-written by Mike Elizondo, who’s worked with the likes of Eminem, 50 Cent and Nelly Furtado, Evolution is at its core authentically Sheryl Crow, with an elevated artistic vision and concept to match. Crow pours out her innermost thoughts about how the impacts of the last few years will be a cautionary tale for future generations.

From the get-go, Crow employs familiar sounds while still making some of these songs fresh. Opener “Alarm Clock” is reminiscent of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” with its crunchy-sounding guitar lines and upbeat energy. Then comes a catchy hook that blends in a poppier sound as Crow wishes that she could hit snooze and stay in dreamland for a little while longer.

“Do It Again,” the one song on the album produced by John Shanks, sounds like a B-side to “Soak Up the Sun,” but with bluesy harmonica flourishes and some twangy guitars. “Everyone is searching for a little peace of mind/ So, I brought along some mushrooms/ And I sat with the divine,” Crow sings.

“Love Life” starts off with a spacey synths before quickly pivoting into an organ vamp and bluesy guitar jamming. The melody is warm, inviting and as uplifting as the message it encompasses. “I remember thinking I don’t want this to end/ Living for the day we’d do it again,” Crow sings, oozing nostalgia. “You Can’t Change The Weather” continues with the happy, clear-eyed vibes, slowing the tempo with an eye-flowing groove and bluesy guitar squeals.

The title track falls right in the middle of the album. After addressing her thoughts on music on the radio borrowing heavily from her own sound, Crow digs into artificial intelligence and its global and personal effects. “Maybe there’s a grand solution/ Somewhere we will find/ Deep in the heart of humankind/ I held my baby as the sun comes up,” she sings.

The mellow instrumentation on the verses allow her words to come through clearly. The song picks up speed on the choruses, adding symphonic strings, and a breakdown in the middle is gargantuan in comparison, with squealing guitar hammer-ons and string bending. If it sounds like Sheryl Crow playing Rage Against The Machine, it’s because the guitar solo is delivered by none other than Tom Morello.

Soft, acoustic ballad “Where,” which Crow cowrote with Bill Bottrell prior to starting work on Evolution, asks the question, “Where can we be free?” Longingly, Sheryl Crow determines that “To be free means learning not to care.” The soothing melody flows as steadily as the waves she describes in the song.

On “Don’t Walk Away,” it’s just Crow and her piano. She mourns the loss of human connection both on a personal level and as a society, singing, “Seems like no one stays together anymore/ It’s just to easy to walk out an open door.” This is where we experience the intricacies of Crow’s vocal prowess. It’s intimate, fragile and the opposite of flashy. Rather than a break-up song, Crow has said it’s about the need for all of us to work for a greater good.

The feisty “Broken Record” picks up the tempo with ’60s-sounding organ before recapturing that essential Sheryl Crow sound (fun!) as she targets hate mongers on the internet and others with a large platform (are you listening Elon and whoever’s at Fox News these days?) “You’ll hate me more once you hate this song!” Crow belts.

It sounds as if Sheryl Crow is singing album closer (some versions of the album come with a bonus track) “Waiting In The Wings” to her sons: “When the lights go down/ And it’s your time to shine/ I won’t miss a thing/ I’ll be waiting in the wings,” she sings. It’s a sweet conclusion, one that again looks to the future and how our goal should inevitably be to leave the world better than we found it.

Editor Roman Gokhman contributed to this story. Follow writer Vera Maksymiuk at Twitter.com/veramaksymiuk.