Thor Christensen

Sheryl Crow's breezy pop hits make it easy to forget how political her music can be. Friday night at Superpages.com Center, she was ready to take on the world – or at least sing about how screwed up it is.

She opened with three new tunes: "God Bless This Mess," with its reference to "a war all based on lies"; "Shine Over Babylon" ("If there's a God, where is he now?"); and "Love is Free," about the carnage of Hurricane Katrina.

And she was just getting started. She fused her oil dependency song "Gasoline" with the Stones' war-themed "Gimme Shelter" and sang about genocide in "Out of Our Heads," also from her latest CD, Detours.

In lesser hands, it would have been overkill. But Ms. Crow was savvy enough to blend her politics with infectious melodies and a hint of optimism – a lesson she gleaned from Stevie Wonder, whose "Higher Ground" proved to be the perfect show-closer (Ms. Crow sang it as a duet with opening act Toots Hibbert).

It also helped that she mixed the angry new tunes into a show packed with hits, from "All I Wanna Do" to "Soak Up the Sun" to a wicked fusion of "There Goes the Neighborhood" and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way."

British singer James Blunt preceded Ms. Crow with an hourlong set that wasn't as bad as it could have been.

As a balladeer, he can be awfully syrupy, as he reminded us with his 2005 hit "You're Beautiful." But he wisely built the set around uptempo songs and exuberant showmanship. Out of nowhere, he made a loony 60-second sprint up to the lawn section and back. Later, he danced atop his piano and leaped off the drum-riser.

And after bawling his way through "Goodbye My Lover," he grinned and pretended to brush the whole thing off: "She meant nothing to me," he joked.

Mr. Blunt's love songs may be seriously overwrought. But at least the guy doesn't take himself too seriously.

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