"Relish" Joan Osborne

This is easily in the top ten of albums for the nineties. "Little Wild One' was an attempt to recapture the magic of this album.. "Breakfast in Bed" is fantastic. "Pretty Little Stranger' is great with more of a countryish feel and I'm sure the new one " Bring it on Home" (the title track is a cover of the old blues tune made famous by Led Zepelin) is equally great. I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail although Emusic has a great deal on it here.

Probably one of the first to buy her tape in AZ

I bought this tape way before she hit with "One of Us". I was actually looking for an Ozzy tape when I stumbled upon her! Something about it made me buy it even though I didn't know a thing about her. I was not disappointed! I immediately fell in love with her voice, though oddly, I never cared for "one of us".

“Relish” can be a sharp, bittersweet condiment; it can also suggest a determined gusto to live to the fullest. Combined, these two images provide a good taste of Joan Osborne’s major-label debut (the live Soul Show was self-released in 1992). Grounded in blues, soul and gospel, the Kentucky native wields her gritty voice with personality and forceful presence, kind of Melissa Etheridge meets Sophie B. Hawkins with a splash of Jann Arden. Osborne’s passion for life oozes from the grooves. There’s an uplifting fervor to her material and delivery, as if every second, every note was being individually savored. Key track “One of Us” sets the disc’s optimistic tone. It’s a simple, direct statement of faith, honest and unadorned, one framed in a near-perfect chorus and delectable Neil Young-ish guitar riff. This isn’t one of those sugary, superficial, goody-two-shoes Amy Grant kind of deals. “Right Hand Man” and “Let’s Just Get Naked” confirm that Osborne’s earthy, enlightened spirituality shares the same bed with sensuality and sexuality. Well-rounded both lyrically and musically, there’s also no contradiction in this universe between “Lumina”‘s thoughtful balladry and the wailing harp and acoustic slide bursting the seams of “Help Me.” – Roch Parisien