"You can't control what happens to this person that you've raised out in the world; they're on their own—and you also can't control what happens with this music that you put out into the world. You don't know how people are going to accept it, and you don't know who's going to be interested."
—Joan Osborne on the title Nobody Owns You and themes on the album.[2]
Nobody Owns You is a 2023 studio album by American singer-songwriterJoan Osborne. The release balances personal and political themes[3] and has received positive reviews from critics.
Reception
In American Songwriter, Lee Zimmerman rated this album 3 out of 5 stars, writing that "Osborne is in typical robust voice throughout, Rice's production is appropriately subtle if needed and more vivid when required, but some selections don't connect melodically" and "there is little of the frisky soul or funk that made Osborne's albums of R&B, Motown, and oldie pop covers so successful, replaced by a somber, pensiveness".[4] Jim Hynes of Glide Magazine praised the "raw emotional place" and how Osborne has "never been as focused and direct as she is with this poignant effort".[5]
Track listing
"I Should've Danced More" (Joan Osborne and Ben Rice) – 3:56
"Nobody Owns You" (Osborne and Rice) – 3:32
"So Many Airports" (Osborne and Rice) – 3:44
"Woman's Work" (Adam Bernstein, Osborne, Larry Perfetti Jack Petruzzelli, and Rice) – 3:39
"The Smallest Trees" (Osborne) – 3:40
"Time of the Gun" (Osborne and Petruzzelli) – 4:03
