FOLK-ROCK / SINGER-SONGWRITER

Joan Osborne’s 12th studio album since her breakthrough nearly 30 years ago has a dozen new, good songs, all of them written or co-written by Osborne. The sound is easy to like, a little bit Americana or country-ish. Her band here includes guitar, lap steel guitar, piano, and several background vocalists.

FCC clean

1 ** mid-tempo. a good country-rock song about some things we all should do more (3:56)
2 ** mid-slow. folky w/ strummed guitar. uplifting advice from mom to daughter (3:32)
3 slow. an introspective folk ballad reflecting on the many roads traveled in life (3:44)
4 ** mid-tempo. feminist anthem driven by a funky bass line & a cool R&B organ (3:39)
5 mid-slow. quite a pretty song with sweet lyrics seemingly directed to a young child (3:40)
6 slow, acoustic & spare. a somewhat oblique protest song about guns, I think (4:03)
7 * mid-slow. bouncy & bluesy number about resisting the devil (3:40)
8 * very slow. a gentle prayer to bless an elderly woman, maybe the narrator’s mom (3:37)
9 * mid-tempo. a long list of different sorts of people, all of whom are the equal children of God. It’s a sweet message; some of the rhymes are humorous (4:26)
10 mid-slow. country-rock sound. the abstract lyrics went over my head (4:00)
11 slow. very gentle song about choosing to do some small good for the world (4:16)
12 ** mid-tempo. an uplifting love song to America: all its cities, all its people, all its music. Proudly patriotic & not the least bit partisan. Best song on the album by far (4:39)