★★★★★
Judith Owen treats songs as art, making beautiful piano-based songs that draw on jazz, pop, folk and R&B traditions, effectively dressing up a number of songs with strings. They sound like carefully constructed things, and in "Sympathy," her lyrics have an allusive quality, looking for sympathy in language that recalls the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." More importantly, they make art sound personal. Her songs present someone at peace with herself, flaws, contradictions and all...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
The subversive sense of humor that leads part-time New Orleanian Judith Owen to record cabaret versions of "Eye of the Tiger" on Here and "Smoke on the Water" on 2005's Lost and Found is a little misleading. It's an essential part of her art, as are the vocal dynamics while playing piano that prompt people to compare her to Tori Amos. They're all a part of her charm, but they obscure the classic, Joni Mitchell-esque Californian singer/songwriter that is at the core of Owen's work...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
Mopping Up Karma is a flashback of sorts, a return to material Judith Owen started in Los Angeles in 1998 with Glen Ballard and Clifton Magness for a Java Records album that didn't come out. Nothing on the album sounds a decade old, partially because the tracks were finished and revised with vocals and other parts re-recorded by John Fischbach at Piety Street Recording...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
The American music industry may not understand the Welsh-born singer Judith Owen, but at least Richard Thompson appreciates her remarkable voice and decidedly non-easy listening approach to songwriting. These songs were originally recorded for the Capitol label in the late 1990s, after Owen had moved to California...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2010-04-02
★★★★★
Track Listing: Smoke on the Water; Emily; Sky High; Moonlight; Train out of Hollywood; These Foolish Things; Walking on the Moon; Famous Friends; Down; Bridges; Enough; Night and Day; Dreaming. Personnel: Judith Owen- vocals; Tom Scott- tenor saxophone on "Sky High;" Keb' Mo'- guitar on "Train Out of Hollywood;" Cassandra Wilson- vocal on "Enough;" Richard Thompson- guitar on "Night and Day;" others...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2009-06-05
★★★★★
A superior pop singer and songwriter, Judith Owen has been a major name in pop music since the late '90s. Happy This Way features a dozen of her songs, tunes that are generally wistful and sometimes playful. They stylistically hint at the Beatles and the 1960s in general, while remaining contemporary...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
British singer/songwriter Judith Owen, for whom Here is her fifth self-released album, is the ideal performer for music fans who wish Joni Mitchell had gone on making records like Blue and For the Roses back in the first half of the '70s. Owen sounds like she has a complete collection of Mitchell's albums, at least up as far as The Hissing of Summer Lawns, that is, and also a general familiarity with the works of Carole King, Kate Bush, and Tori Amos...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
You'll probably find this album in the jazz section, but don't be fooled. Singer/songwriter/pianist Judith Owen is to jazz what Richard Thompson is to rock & roll -- a member of the loyal opposition, someone whose roots are both centuries deeper and more broadly contemporary than any easy genre designation can account for...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
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