committed suicide three weeks later. Nevertheless, O'Brien's parents insisted that Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, noting that he "was just mad about it [...] But the problems that drove him toward the end were – you know, that's a long, long bloody trip." After Tuesday Night Music Club, Crow wanted to prove her authority as a musician. According to her, "My only objective on this record was to get under people's skin, because I was feeling like I had so much shit to hurl at the tape." Work on the new album began at Toad Hall in Pasadena, California, the same studio where Tuesday Night Music Club was recorded, but sessions were then relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana because Crow "was feeling ghosts in that room". Bottrell was designated to produce the record and co-wrote three songs that would appear on the album, but eventually left because he could not sort out his differences with Crow. As a result, Crow took over production duties and wrote most of the songs alone or with only one collaborator. She also played most of the instruments on the album, including bass and guitar work and nearly all the keyboard parts. Most of the album was recorded at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans, although Crow would later return to Los Angeles to complete work at The Sound Factory and Sunset Sound. Audio mastering took place at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. Music and lyrics Musically, Sheryl Crow was described as a combination of rock, blues, alternative rock, country, folk, and light hip hop loops. Unlike its predecessor, it also features a more off-balance production and a richer instrumentation, with "lots of fuzz, wurlitzer, hammond, moog. Nothing extreme, perhaps, but almost psychedelic when joined to big mainstream melodies", one critic explained. The album covers topics of American life, relationship breakups, and moral and ethical issues, among others. For example, "Home" is a folk ballad where Crow recounts the emotional difficulties of a deteriorating relationship, while "Superstar" deals with a woman fantasizing about stardom. The song "A Change Would Do You Good", which features hand claps and organ licks, is about the need to escape a constricted life. The opening track, "Maybe Angels", was described as "a cryptic ode to UFOs and government conspiracies that plays like an X-Files theme song." Crow explained that the song is "an extraterrestrial yarn that finds