Audio CD review:
Joan Osborne - Breakfast in Bed

Joan Osborne - Breakfast in Bed

Band: Joan Osborne Title: Breakfast in Bed Rating: Release Date: 22 May, 2007 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: I've Got To Use My Imagination 2: Ain't No Sunshine 3: Midnight Train To Georgia 4: Baby Is A Butterfly 5: Breakfast In Bed 6: Cream Dream 7: Natural High 8: Heart Of Stone 9: Sara Smile 10: Eliminate The Night 11: Break Up To Make Up 12: I Know What's Goin' On 13: Alone With You 14: Kiss And Say Goodbye 15: Heat Wave 16: What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted

Editoral Review Long an underappreciated artist, Osborne is a performer with the wisdom to exercise vocal restraint for an effect that's more Dusty Springfield than Christina Aguilera. On Breakfast in Bed, her first release on Time Life Records (yes, that Time Life) Joan Osborne tackles a crop of hand-picked soul and R&B favorites with equal parts sass and sensitivity. Her fine previous outing interpreting soul standards was aptly titled How Sweet It Is, and witness her contribution to the terrific 2002 film Standing in the Shadows of Motown, where Osborne's astute readings of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Heatwave" outshone performers like Ben Harper and Gerald Levert (happily, both songs are included here). The title track and Hall and Oates' "Sara Smile" are both canny choices that play to her strengths in delivering credible blue-eyed soul, and six new Osborne-penned songs fit neatly into the record. If her compositions pale a bit next to the classics she covers (with the sultry and slithery exception of the excellent "Eliminate the Night"), give Osborne credit for bravely placing herself side-by-side with songwriting luminaries like Holland-Dozier-Holland and Bill Withers. Breakfast in Bed makes for a leisurely listen on a sunny Sunday morning, so put up your feet and stay awhile. --Ben Heege .. You can see a complete list of all Joan Osborne discography, or go back to the Joan Osborne tabs