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Joy Comes Back Image
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The ninth full-length studio release for the Grammy-nominated blues artist features covers of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," the Four Tops’ "Loving You is Sweeter than Ever" and Chris Stapleton's "What Are You Listening To?"
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Top Track

Working Woman
She's over time and underpaid, She's kickin' ass and taking names. She's punching that clock, She's climbing that ladder. She's spinning those... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Mar 21, 2017
    81
    An artist well suited to take center stage, Ruthie Foster has more fully and forcibly arrived.
  2. Mar 28, 2017
    80
    It finds her expanding her palette while resulting in her most diverse offering yet.
  3. Mar 21, 2017
    80
    Foster makes them all her own through her through her strong vocals and distinctive phrasing. She has a commanding presence and a nuanced sensibility that she learned in church as a young girl. You could say the music here is truly the rock of ages.
  4. Apr 4, 2017
    80
    She may have been through the ringer recently, but she's choosing to be positive--or, as she sings on Shawnee Kilgore's "Abraham," "When I do good/I feel good"--and that gives Joy Comes Back a relaxed richness that's quite restorative.
  5. 70
    The album’s eclectic nature never feels random. Rather, it highlight’s Foster’s natural inclusive qualities and showcases an artist who, nearly two decades into her recording career, has refined and elaborated her vision of empowered redemption, both of which are in full flight on the superb Joy Comes Back.
  6. Mojo
    Mar 21, 2017
    60
    Covers include The Four Tops' Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever cooked into greasy Southern soul, and the title track, where, backed by Derek Trucks on slide guitar, she delivers the hymnal straight. [May 2017, p.96]
  7. Mar 22, 2017
    60
    So Joy Comes Back might be on your shopping list, especially if you're already a Ruthie Foster fan, but take this advice: It's only half a great album, so keep it on the B side.