Trust Shelby

Because I've been waiting for the new Shelby, I've been listening to some of her older stuff.

I know I said I didn't like it all that much. Really, what I should have said, I didn't like her last album all that much, although I admired the spirit in which it was recorded. Going back to her two albums before that, they're both excellent.

How excellent they are, you realise when you try to do Roy a "best of Shelby up till now" compo, and you find yourself wanting to include just about everything from the albums I am Shelby Lynne and Love, Shelby.

2001, she released Love, Shelby which has got a real commercial sheen, unlike her last two (including Suit Yourself, released tomorrow), and I was disappointed in it when it first came out. Which is great, because getting it out now, it's so refreshing. Probably Lari White's Green Eyed Soul from last year prepared me for it better.

If you've owned it for 4 years like me and played it only once or twice since then, you get this frisson from the opening track ("Trust Me," written by Shelby Lynne and Glen Ballard) as it comes on in the car: who's this?. You hear the solo piano, and then the voice, with a long delay: "Faith - Trust..." and you know you're listening to some slick commercial pop. But it's just so damn good, you forget about it being commercial and just enjoy it for itself: a great song, performed brilliantly, with the highest quality production values (the fashionably dry vocal, the fashionably processed drums etc).

Even so, a couple of tracks later comes a song you just wouldn't expect on such a commercial-sounding record: "Jesus on a Greyhound" (same writers), so you do have to keep adjusting your brain.

Anyway, here are the 18 tracks for the ultimate Shelby compo up till today:

Trust Me - Love, Shelby
Bend - Love, Shelby
Gotta Get Back - I Am Shelby Lynne
Your Lies - I Am Shelby Lynne
Telephone - Identity Crisis
Leavin' - I Am Shelby Lynne
Thought It Would Be Easier - I Am Shelby Lynne
Wall In Your Heart - Love, Shelby
Jesus On A Greyhound - Love, Shelby
If I Were Smart - Identity Crisis
Why Can't You Be? - I Am Shelby Lynne
Lookin' Up - I Am Shelby Lynne
Dream Some - I Am Shelby Lynne
Gonna Be Better - Identity Crisis
Buttons And Beaus - Identity Crisis
I Can't Wait - Love, Shelby
Killin' Kind - Love, Shelby
All Of A Sudden You Disappeared - Love, Shelby