Customer Reviews

Little Wild One

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I pretty much like everything that Joan does, but probably like many other fans, I've been waiting for a release that returns to the sonic quality of Relish. Little Wild One might be that CD. I'm finding myself hooked on listening to it, and the more I do, the more I like it. The fresh new songs are all worthy of Joan's vocals, with basic instrumentation that sounds very good -- usually a couple guitars, bass, and a keyboard -- some electric and some acoustic. There are some wonderful lyrics, good melodies, nice sounds, and Joan's rich and perfect-pitch voice is beautiful from beginning to end.

I'm always hoping to re-experience the mind blowing impact that Joan's singing had on me when I first heard "Ladder" and "St. Theresa" and other songs on "Relish". Joan doesn't belt out the soul like that, but I feel a lot more life in these recordings than in some of her recent R&B albums. This is fine stuff -- more mature, I think. Thanks for the great listening, Joan! I also recommend checking out Joan doing some fine vocal performances with Phil Lesh and Friends on Phil Lesh & Friends - Live at the Warfield Theater

I am a huge John Hiatt fan. What's that got to do with this album you ask?
Joan opened for John Hiatt in Boulder a couple nights ago. All I knew from her was her first album with the song "One of Us." (You know, the theme to "Joan of Arcadia") Anyway, she blew me away, as well as everyone else in the audience. (One even shouted she should be president, but I digress) I went to the table and immediately bought this album, and wished I had the income to purchase the rest.
As far as this album goes, my favorite track is "Cathedrals" or "Rodeo".
She has a terrific voice, and, for the first time, I was sorry when the opener for John Hiatt had to leave the stage. (On a side note, JH's concert was pretty darn good.)

I read about Ms Osborne's newest record in the paper a couple weeks ago. I ran out on my lunch hour to buy it along with Lindsey Buckingham's newest also. Comparitively, I've been listening to Joan's alot more. It's warmer, more mature, and the instrumentation and production is much better. Mr. Buckingham's sounds claustrophobic. Ms. Osborne's voice is the star here - soaring and dipping like a hawk on the wing - her vocals are pure and clear but she can sing with an edge too. The songs are strong - she references New York City and its neighborhoods in many of the tunes. She wrote or co-wrote most of them. The instrumentation is perfectly compliments the tunes. Enough variation to make each tune sound different. I especially like the electric 12 string guitar on the second track "Sweeter Than The Rest". My overall favorite track is "Light of This World".
Joan is the best female vocalist in her age group. I am waiting for the postman to deliver the Phil Lesh & Friends recording with Joan singing Greatful Dead tunes - that's got to be wild.
Anyway, this disc gets a big thumbs up from this reviewer who's been listening to music for close to 50 years. I can't wait to buy a copy for my 31 year old daughter, she'll love it.

Joan Osborne returns with "Little Wild One", her seventh cd, and her first cd of predominantly original material in eight years! It's about time!

Not only does Joan write, or co-write ten of the eleven tracks, but she decided to have the original production team from her smash 1995 cd "Relish" to the same for "Little Wild One". Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian (of The Hooters, one of my favorite bands) and Rick Chertoff (who produced several Hooters cds and even Cyndi Lauper too) all lend a hand, making "Little Wild One" Joan's most satisfying cd in eight years since 2000's "Righteous Love".

There are several standout tracks here, but two of my favorites are Joan's self-penned "Meet You In The Middle" and her cover song of R. Cliff's "Cathedrals" (I wish I knew who he was so I could hear the original version). Other standouts are "Rodeo", "Daddy-O", "Light Of The World", "Sweeter Than The Rest" and "Can't Say No" and "To The One I Love".

This is the Joan Osborne I have been pining for through her last three (yes, THREE!) cover albums. I hope her urge to do cover songs is behind her now so that we may experience full, undiluted Joan.

If you've left the Joan Osborne herd, it's time to come back. "Little Wild One" is one of her best works. Four stars because it's not quite "Relish", but it comes close.

I really admire Joan Osborne. and I was delighted to hear that she had teamed up with the team the guys who brought us Relish: Eric Bazilian, Rob Hyman, William Wittman, Rick Chertoff and Mark Egan playing bass. When I first heard Eric's mandolin on track one, I knew I was going to be lead on a musical journey I would no doubt enjoy. This is not Relish, but it is just as good! It's just different. Suffice to say, I have had this CD in my car for over a year (note: this is an updated review, as I added a star because I love this album THAT much!), and have played it over a hundred times. It's Joan and company dishing out some great lyrics, some amazing backing instruments, and luscious vocals!

Joan has soul, one of the finest voices in contemporary music, and has great song ideas, but having Eric and Rob at her back, she can reach the heights of the Cathedral where she hoped she would stay, post Relish. I had heard rumors for the past few years that this album was going to be made, but it just kept getting delayed. Finally I found out through the Philly grapevine that Joan had been in Rob's Elm Street Studio with Eric, and I knew that magic would inevitably happen with two of the most gifted songwriter/producers I know, and Bazilian/Hyman, known to many as the core of the Philly band, The Hooters, can make magic when given enough canvass on which to paint.

This is a more nuanced album, with a very spartan production (but some really tasty guitar playing on Eric's part!), which I know Joan insisted upon. Though Cathedral is the money shot, I love listening to the elegant chord changes Eric and Rob injected into the first two songs. These are songwriters who know their craft, and are at the top of their game--still. But when you hit the third song, you get swept into the chorus on Cathedral which dances in your head for days after listening...."In the Cathedral's of New York and Rome, there is a feeling you should just go home, and spend a lifetime, finding just where that is."

Well done! Thank you, Joan, Eric & Rob! This album is a gift, and a bit of a lesson in music...if you get the right talent in a studio, magic happens. Joan knew that Eric and Rob and the team that brought us Relish would get her back to where she wanted to go. This is really fine work by some very talented and gifted artists who care about making good music for all the right reasons. If you are a fan of Joan's, you'll love this CD. Also, I'm an MP3 junkie, but bought the CD as Eric and Rob are fastidious about production quality, which I knew would be sacrificed in an MP3 download. I was not disappointed. Enjoy!

Joan Osborne has a brilliant discography of blues and folk rock and soul covers. She breaks new ground with "Little Wild One" with soulful and moving songs of love's redemptive power tinged with an atmosphere of spiritual transcendence. The theme is established with the opening track "Hallelujah In The City" - a hauntingly beautiful work of folk rock that is certainly among her best songs ever. If you are religious this song sounds like a prayer. If not, it sounds like a love song. Either way - it's drop dead beautiful. There are lyrics that call out areas of New York City. Is it a paean to the city of New York? She carries the theme directly with the next track "Sweeter Than the Rest" - another gorgeous song destined to be reckoned among her best. It, too, is about love's redemptive power and ambiguously references the city of New York, a lover, or something more transcendent. The lyrics are evocative, but just abstract enough. The theme of transcendent New York is made explicit in the 3rd track - the haunting and lovely "Cathedrals" (I'm running out of adjectives to describe how beautiful and otherworldly the lyrics and melodies of these songs are). It's a song about a lost angel in the city. This is just fantastic stuff and any fan of Osborne or folk rock in general will be thrilled.

The rest of the album doesn't quite carry this extremely high level of quality - although there are other good songs here. The transcendent New York theme is revisited in the final track "Bury Me on the Battery". "Daddy-O" takes us out to Coney Island and has an instrumental bridge with a haunted and far away organ sound that simultaneously takes us back to Coney Island's carnival heyday and makes us feel the loss of its passing. That sweet aching quality is a recurring theme in this album and helps to unify it. Other than the country song "Rodeo" which feels out of place here, it all hangs together with amazing cohesiveness and common thread.

Joan Osborne is a blues and folk rock diva of epic proportions in my book. For a little blond woman she has the ability to have her voice sound huge. In her debut, Relish, she showed astonishing vocal power. Back on 2005's "One Of Us" album she had the audacity to cover Aretha Franklin's 1968 hit and later the show stopping highlight of the "Blues Brothers" film: "Think". Not only did she rise to the occasion, she nailed it and gave Aretha's version a real run for it's money. Given my absolute reverence for the Queen of Soul, I was beyond impressed. On "Little Wild One" Osborne never quite gives us the full powerhouse vocal fireworks, but she has produced a beautiful moving album that shows her songwriting brilliance, hangs together well as an album, and succeeds brilliantly as musical entertainment.

The title of this is actually the beginning of a quote from Joan Osborne on her website: "If you dig deep enough into any genre, you find that they cross over." That statement has been the theme of Osborne's musical career over the past decade and a half. And while I've always been a casual fan, it was only recently, with this release, that I began paying close enough attention to recognize what a rich and varied catalog Joan Osborne has built. While so many artists who experience early success spend the rest of their careers trying to replicate it again and again, Osborne has used 1995's "Relish" as an opportunity to "dig deep" not only into other genres of music but also, and most stridently, into her own seemingly bottomless well of talent. The result has been a musical journey from the streets of Manhattan, to Lilith Fair, through Nashville, Motown, Dusty Springfield's Delta, to India and, with "Little Wild One," right back home to New York City which these songs celebrate with all of the energy, enthusiasm and magic of a concert in Central Park, with that peerless skyline glowing behind her and her magnificent band. Much has been written about this being a reunion with her "Relish" team, but the truth is that this is a record born not of it, but of the rich musical journey Joan has returned from, one which she will hopefully continue. All of the growth and influences are in evidence here, and we are the beneficiaries. Welcome home!

Joan Osborne's 2006 set Pretty Little Stranger and her 2007 R&B escapade Breakfast in Bed were excellent outings, offering delightful gems. When "Little Wild One" arrived, I couldn't bring myself to eject the CD although I had four other new CDs waiting for a first listening. As a singer, Osborne's great accomplishment is in her total vocal commitment that makes you feel the emotions hinted in the lyrics. She ignites a powerful storm. My favorite track is the Rev. Gary Davis song from 1968 that Joan shapes to what could be the positive thinking record of the year from its joyful chorus, "Just as long as I'm in this world, I'll be a light of this world." The opener "Hallelujah in the City" is a stunning song that seems to me a statement of faith, "I have been unfaithful, I have been untrue, How'd I find the road that brought me back to you?" The second track written with Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, "Sweeter Than the Rest," is a jubilant rocker that uses Mark Egan's delightful bass as Joan blooms on vocals, "You climbed in my window & you painted me gold; It was a strong recognition; It was truth being told; And we burned down the winter with the fire we possess." "Can't Say No" pulses with energy and desire, "How deep my love, so sweet tonight, I can't say no anymore." The title track, "Rodeo," "Daddy-O" and the incredible closer "Bury Me on the Battery" make this a set where Joan goes from strength to strength. This is another outstanding release by this extraordinary singer. Bravo!

Have followed Joan Osborne since her salad--or should I say "Relish"--days, and have always loved the breadth and depth of her sound and the range of her musical choices. With this release she is coming into her own and has clearly mastered the art of the song and the science of songwriting. Her voice is rare--at once sweet, pure, and edgy--At a recent live show (a must do!)...a friend characterized it as the sound of "sugar cookie dough." Wow! Perfect.

This was my first introduction to the music of Joan Osborne,and I was not disappointed. The whole time I was listening to the album, I kept thinking it reminded me of another artist, but I couldn't put my finger on it. On my second listening I realized who that other artist is: Laura Nyro. You can't get much better than that. My favorite song on the album is Daddy-O, a haunting melody about one's longing to return to childhood, which she sums up perfectly in the phrase,'Coney Island of the mind', as the song fades out with an old carnival tune. If I could find one thing to criticize it would be the constant references to neighborhoods of New York City, which I found vaguely annoying because it has been done to death.