Joan Osborne: Righteous Love : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

What if God were a one-hit wonder? That question must have occurred to Joan Osborne in the years since her spiritually poignant left-field smash "One of Us" -- from her 1995 album, Relish -- turned this Kentucky-born bar-band veteran into an unlikely pop star. And her long-delayed follow-up, Righteous Love, hardly sounds like a sure thing in the context of today's charts. But the record is a good reminder of why Osborne broke through in the first place. The sound of Righteous Love, produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Los Lobos), often recalls the churchy grace of Al Green's great old Willie Mitchell-produced albums. And while slightly uneven as a writer, Osborne is a convincing, soulful singer in the Bonnie Raitt tradition; she shines in her cover of Bob Dylan's stately "To Make You Feel My Love." Even after such a long wait between records, Osborne impresses with the warmth and human embrace of her voice. She seems like one of us, but with a better set of pipes. (RS 850)

DAVID WILD