She has utilized her incredible voice through her own songs while also becoming one of her generation’s finest interpreters. Throughout her 25-year, multi-Grammy nominated career, Joan Osborne has never been an artist confined to one space. Rea’s words can be heard throughout the powerful song, spoken in her native tongue. Rea spoke in-depth with Osborne about and the difficulties she and her family faced when coming to America from Mexico seeking asylum, and the challenges since. On one of the album’s most important songs, “What’s That You Say” Osborne focuses on immigration and the plight of Ana Marie Rea. Osborne offers a comforting song of hope on the beautiful lullaby, ”Whole Wide World” as she sings, “We could see the whole wide world from here, Lookin’ past the sorrow and the tears, Let me take you to that better place, Let me put that smile back on your face.” Driven by an infectious 1970’s synth riff, “Never Get Tired (Of Loving You)” features a heartfelt message of reassurance for her teenaged daughter during unstable times. “Hand’s Off” is a visceral reaction to the unchecked corruption that is happening before our eyes, while on “That Was A Lie” Osborne takes on the acceptance of misinformation and how it has been weaponized and normalized. The album opens with the inspiring “Take It Anyway That I Can Get”, a soulful calling to brazenly live life to the fullest. Osborne beautifully balances the weight of her messages with solace and optimism. Trouble & Strife finds the gifted vocalist offering a strong yet uplifting response to some of the socio-political issues plaguing our nation over the last several years. Osborne self-produced the new collection and penned all ten songs, with two co-writes. Following up her last record, 2017’s Bob Dylan covers album, Osborne picked the right time to speak with her own voice again.Purchase includes postcard signed by Joan Osborne.Īcclaimed singer/songwriter Joan Osborne is back with Trouble & Strife (Womanly Hips Records), her first album of original material in six years. The most politically minded album of her career, Trouble And Strife is a record tailor made for 2020, one of the most politically significant years in a generation. Lyrics aside, musically the album is a mix of blues, funk and plenty of classic straight on rock, with nods to the 70s on up – more familiar territory for Osborne. But the bulk of themes here focus on our current situation, a long in-the-making reckoning on sexism, our country’s treatment of immigrants, racial prejudices and corruption from the top down. That’s not to say that Trouble And Strife simply plays out like cable news in the background there is the fantastic, upbeat love song “Never Get Tired (Of Loving You),” the best moment off the record, the slower love song “Whole Wide World” and the driving title track, an anti-love song about couples who are just not good for each other. She also tackles obvious government corruption in “Hands Off” (that could have easily just been titled “Trump”), blatant misinformation campaigns on “That Was A Lie,” and sexism and misogyny on “Boy Don’t Cha Know.” All heavy topics, but perfectly appropriate for our current social and political reality. Osborne not only spoke to Rea to get an authentic and honest assessment of the difficulties she and her family faced, but she recorded Rea as well, who can be heard throughout the funk-heavy song speaking Spanish in lines that are woven throughout. The track is about a real immigrant, Ana Marie Rea, who came to the U.S. Just two songs in, “What’s That You Say” tackles immigration in a remarkably relevant song. On her first LP of all original songs since 2014, Joan Osborne finds herself swimming in familiar waters, singing about a slew of current social and political issues.
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