Little has gone right in Osborne’s career since her 1995 hit “One Of Us”, which found her bracketed with Alanis and Sheryl as part of a new and assertive breed of American female singer-songwriters.
After being dropped by two major labels, on How Sweet It Is she’s gone back to her blues and R&B roots and made a defiantly non-rock album of songs originally done by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Edwin Starr, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Hendrix and Sly Stone. You could be forgiven for not expecting much. In fact, she’s a brilliant reinterpreter and sounds far happier in Raitt territory than she ever did as a Morissette clone.
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