Joss Stone

Her debut, Soul Sessions, was so well received some used the A-word (as in Aretha) to describe the teenager. Mixing contemporary R&B with classic soul, Stone not only refines her big, beautiful voice on her second LP, but she also shows off her songwriting -- she co-authored many tracks with the legendary Betty Wright.

You wouldn't expect a seventeen-year-old white girl from Devon, England, to have the
pipes of a Delta howler. But Joss Stone's earnest, overdeveloped oomph made 2003's Soul
Sessions a minor hit. As on her last album, tasteful retro organs and wah-wah dominate this
batch of originals (co-written with pros such as her mentor, soul icon Betty Wright), but
the neosoul hip-shaker "Don't Cha Wanna Ride" and the anti-drug kiss-off "You H... More >

Eighteen-year-old Joss Stone is cursed with a great voice--a plummy yet gritty thing of tremendous range and power. Hearing her try to make like Gladys Knight on 2003's Miami-funk-styled The Soul Sessions was like watching a 12-year-old with 36D's imitate Marilyn Monroe--sure some guys find it sexy, but they're perverts. For the rest of us, perhaps paradoxically, this album's compromise with the teenpop divahood she was groomed for will feel like an authenticity move. Stone's infatuation with band grooves provides relief from radio-ready synthesizers and compressors. And processed through an instrument more solid than Christina's or Pink's, song-doctored fabrications like Jet Lag and Don't Cha Wanna Ride split the difference between guaranteed hook appeal and a decent simulation of emotional truth. (Grade - ***)