For Sheryl Crow, the title of her seventh album marks a long-awaited return by the nine-time Grammy winner to the sounds that first drew her to making music. The results evoke a time when soul and passion filled the radio waves, when the sweat and joy of a recording session could be captured forever on wax. Sometimes the musical references—Al Green, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder—are made apparent, but the album’s eleven songs are characterized more by capturing a classic spirit than by imitating any specific style.

The record features a few high-profile guest stars. When she cut “Eye to Eye,” with its loping reggae groove, there was only one guitarist she could imagine adding his signature slashing riffs to the mix—her old friend Keith Richards. A Memphis native named Justin Timberlake dropped by one of Crow’s sessions, and offered to contribute background vocals to a version of Terence Trent D’Arby’s 1987 smash “Sign Your Name.”