Joan Osborne - Trouble and Strife [WEB](2020)

You don't always know what you're in for when you listen to a new Joan Osborne album. It goes without saying that it's going to be soulful and satisfying in its way, and she's going to remind us she's one of the strongest American vocalists regularly recording. But are you going to get a set of blues, soul, funk, country, rock & roll, jazz, or jam band grooves? With 2020's Trouble and Strife, Osborne confidentially dips her toes into most of those genres, while also offering some subtle but heartfelt commentary on the good and bad sides of the state of the world in the 21st century. In the press handout for Trouble and Strife, Osborne said "we were going for an '70s AM radio vibe," and it's a compliment to say she succeeded; this set speaks to the glory days when pretty much any kind of music with a good melody and the right singer could find its way onto the play list. Osborne and her band evoke full-swagger hard rock ("Hands Off"), Stones-influenced R&B ("That Was a Lie"), sexy no-frills funk ("Meat & Potatoes"), slinky Southern soul ("Whole Wide World"), and even pop-disco ("Never Get Tired [Of Loving You]"), and at every turn she sounds assured and fully in charge, as if she was born to sing it all. It's also impressive that she wrote most of this album herself, and that her genre-hopping is of her own design. Osborne never sounds like she's covering so much ground just to show off; instead, she makes it obvious that she honestly loves all of this, and she's not about to let someone else prevent her from following her musical bliss. (And since she produced the sessions and released the album on her own label, there was no one around to tell her no.) It's not Osborne's nature to force a message into her songs when it doesn't belong, but Trouble and Strife is clearly a product of the year 2020, and she gently but firmly addresses racism, sexism, political corruption, and social division in these songs, while "Whole Wide World" is an anthem for a better world that can also pass for a love song in dim light. Joan Osborne puts far too much into her music for it to sound effortless, but writing good songs and singing them brilliantly seems second nature to her, and Trouble and Strife shows that her talents for creative shape-shifting are in top shape.