Joss Stone

One listen to Joss Stone's The Soul Sessions and it's clear that the 16-year-old has more in common with old school Aretha than new school Britney. Soul-infused songs such as "All The Kings Horses" and "Super Duper Love" are the perfect vehicles for this teen's big, expressive voice.

Winsome brit lass dreams of recording dirty Southern soul record with session players of
the finest vintage: exactly the type of dream the record industry is designed to squelch.
And yet here is Joss Stone, a teenager possessed of an unusually robust voice and
unusually good luck to boot. Backed by an array of R&B veterans - Latimore, Betty Wright,
Timmy Thomas -- Stone shines on this impressive covers set. She chooses songs... More >

Sounds like a well-brought-up twentysomething with a sharp band who writes forgettable originals and smothers covers in irrelevant shows of emotion, as on the endless and supposedly climactic Isleys' chestnut "For the Love of You." But as we all now know, there's a backstory. Band, check--Miami legends like Little Beaver and Timmy Thomas, with Miami legend Betty Wright calling the shots. But Stone isn't from Florida, she's from England, and the forgettables are covers too--the kind of soul marginalia Brits have been overrating since Doris Troy was on Apple. She's only 16, which explains the failed climax. And upon reflection she's not so well brought up, else why trade in Aretha's distinct melody for "All the King's Horses" on soul clichés? Norah Jones is herself, give her that. I hate to think what this phenom will have to go through to get that far. (Grade - C+)