****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Joan Osborne has turned into one of my very favorite singers. Since I started doing my own personal top ten rotation every week, she's had 12 songs there with "Love Is Alive," "What You Are," "After Jane," "I Know What's Goin' On" & "Sweeter Than the Rest" zooming up to #1. So if it sounds like I may be a bit obsessed with music, I do love it. And I'm so thrilled that Joan's new CD knocks it through the roof. Of the 12 wonderful tracks here, four are my instant favorites. The Ashford & Simpson opener "I Don't Need No Doctor" blasts out of the speakers with Aaron Comess' drums mixed high & loud and Joan's vocals urgent, "All I need is my baby." John Mayall's "Broken Wings" is a slow bluesy lament where Joan gets into the groove and milks the emotion out of the lyric, "And the price you'll have to pay, you'll be paying in years of your life." Such sweet pain! Allen Toussaint's "Shoorah! Shoorah!" instantly captured my attention with its insistent beat and Joan's vocals full of romantic flirtation, "I can see you moving, moving all around me; I know you're trying to get me upset, I can feel you grooving, thinking you done found me; I'm here to tell you, you ain't got me yet." Bill Withers' "Same Love That Made Me Laugh" has a classic smoldering blues groove that continually erupts into raw emotion, "Your love is like a chunk of gold, hard to get & hard to hold." I appreciate the liner notes that show what care and research Joan has put into the song selections. The payoff is a vibrant soulful mix of updated tracks with stellar musicianship and Joan's powerful vocal performance. Bravo!
