Joan Osborne: How Sweet It Is : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

As a guest on a late-night television show the evening of September 11, 2002, Joan Osborne was the soul salvation at the end of a most somber day. Her big, warm voice sent soothing vibes over the airwaves. Osborne's latest release, How Sweet It Is, was intended to do just that: take a batch of songs from another period of political, social and cultural ferment, and update them to offer some relief from today's troubled times. Always an interpreter of roots music rather than a preservationist, Osborne retools Edwin Starr's "War," Aretha Franklin's "Think," the Band's "The Weight," Jimi Hendrix's "Bold as Love" and others into a set of gently funkified R&B with sparsely arranged horns, B3 organ, soul-girl backup singers and stylishly understated guitar riffs. Only a singer of Osborne's caliber could pull this off; she's in complete control of her powerful pipes. Osborne favors gospel-tinged sensuality over lusty bravado here, but the undulating beat that moves How Sweet It Is hints that there's still plenty of honey in the hive.

MEREDITH OCHS
(Sept. 17, 2002)