Introducing Joss Stone

Performer: Joss Stone
Engineer: Glenn Standridge; Chuck Brungardt; Steve Greenwell; David Larring
Producer: Raphael Saadiq; Raphael Saadiq
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Joss Stone (vocals); Common, Lauryn Hill (vocals); Raphael Saadiq (guitar, piano, keyboards, background vocals); Chalmers "Spanky" Alford (guitar); Louis Colin (harp); Robert Ozuna (sitar, drums, percussion, turntables); Barry Finclair, Cameron Patrick, Kathleen Robertson, Richard Adkins, Lori Miller, Pamela Gates, Alexander Vselensky, Stanley Hunte, Sandra Billingslea, Gayle Dixon, Sanford Allen, Robert Chausow, Cenovia Cummins, Yvette Devereaux, Lesa Terry, Susan Chatman, Belinda Whitney, Mark Cargill, Charlie Bisharat (violin); Robin Ross, Jorge Moraga, Patrick Morgan, Christopher Jenkins, Richard Brice, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (viola); Eileen Folson, Erik Friedlander, Ronald Lipscomb, Miguel Martinez, Frederick Zlotkin, Peggy Baldwin (cello); Kenneth Whalum (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, horns); Anthony Coleman & Selfhaters (trumpet, horns); Jawara Adams (trumpet); James Zellar (trombone, horns); Lionel Holoman (horns, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, keyboards); Salvator Cracciolo, Jeffrey Clayton, Ron Brown , Matthew Frank , James Ford , Duane Benjamin, Steve Baxter (horns); Khari Parker (drums, percussion); Charlie Happiness (claves); Neil Symonette (percussion); Joi Gilliam, Keisha Jackson, Priscilla Jones Campbell, Jerimiah "Jermaine" Paul (background vocals). Additional personnel: Common, Lauryn Hill. Audio Mixers: Glenn Standridge; Chuck Brungardt. Recording information: Blakeslee Recording co., North Hollywood, CA; Clinton Recording, New York, NY; Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas; Electric Lady Studios; Sonikwire Studios, Irvine, CA; The Plant Studios, Sausalito, CA. Author: Joss Stone. Photographers: Brian Bowen-Smith; Bob Scott . Unknown Contributor Role: Jonathan Cohen "Meres". British soul-pop singer Joss Stone was originally marketed as the teenage second coming of 1970s soul stars like Betty Everett and Ann Peebles. After two albums in that style (one consisting entirely of obscure soul covers) and a U.S. marketing push including several commercials for the Gap, Stone withdrew for a couple of years. INTRODUCING JOSS STONE, from the title onward, is an attempt to completely reinvent Stone's public persona, from a retro-soul blonde to a hip, happening redhead with her finger directly on the pulse of 2007 chart pop. INTRODUCING JOSS STONE is produced by a bevy of contemporary hitmakers, though primarily Raphael Saadiq, and features cameo appearances by everyone from Lauryn Hill to ex-soccer star Vinnie Jones. But in the center of the drum loops, string sections, and slick electronics stands Stone's commanding voice. Opening track "Girl They Won't Believe It" sets the scene for the album as a whole, with Stone delivering a defiant vocal pitched midway between the appealing brattiness of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse's full-throated R&B roar. No longer a retro favorite for the old-school R&B crowd, Joss Stone presents herself as a neo-soul diva for her times. Typically, artists dispense with introductions after their debut -- after all, that is an album designed to introduce them to the world -- but neo-soul singer Joss Stone defiantly titled her third album Introducing Joss Stone, thereby dismissing her first two relatively acclaimed albums with one smooth stroke. She now claims that those records were made under record-label pressure -- neatly contradicting the party line that her debut, The Soul Sessions, turned into a retro-soul project after Joss implored her label to ditch the Christina Aguilera-styled urban-pop she was pursuing -- but now as a young adult of 19, she's free to pursue her muse in her own fashion. All this is back-story to Introducing, but Stone makes her modern metamorphosis plain on the album's very first track, where football-star-turned-Hollywood-muscle Vinnie Jones talks about change ("I see change, I embody change, all we do is change, yeah, I know change, we're born to change" and so on and so forth), setting the stage for some surprise -- which "Girl They Won't Believe It" kind of delivers, if only because it isn't all that different from what Stone has done before. It's a sprightly slice of Northern soul propelled by a bouncy Motown beat that doesn't suggest a change in direction as much as a slight shift in aesthetic. Gone are the seasoned studio pros, in are a bevy of big-name producers all united in a mission to make Stone seem a little less like a '60s blue-eyed soul diva and a little more her age, a little more like a modern girl in 2007. So, the professional in-the-pocket grooves have been replaced by drum loops, the warm burnished sound has been ditched in favor of crisp, bright sonics, Harlan Howard covers have been pushed aside for cameos by Common and Lauryn Hill. It's a cosmetic change that works: Introducing does sound brighter, fresher than her other two albums, pitched partway between Amy Winehouse and Back to Basics Christina yet sounding very much like Texas at their prime. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Typically, artists dispense with introductions after their debut -- after all, that is an album designed to introduce them to the world -- but neo-soul singer Joss Stone defiantly titled her third album Introducing Joss Stone, thereby dismissing her first two relatively acclaimed albums with one smooth stroke. She now claims that those records were made under record-label pressure -- neatly contradicting the party line that her debut, The Soul Sessions, turned into a retro-soul project after Joss implored her label to ditch the Christina Aguilera-styled urban-pop she was pursuing -- but now as a young adult of 19, she's free to pursue her muse in her own fashion. All this is back-story to Introducing, but Stone makes her modern metamorphosis plain on the album's very first track, where football-star-turned-Hollywood-muscle Vinnie Jones blathers on nonsensically about change ("I see change, I embody change, all we do is change, yeah, I know change, we're born to change" and so on and so forth), setting the stage for some surprise, which "Girl They Won't Believe It" kind of delivers, if only because it isn't all that different from what Stone has done before. It's a sprightly slice of Northern soul propelled by a bouncy Motown beat that doesn't suggest a change in direction as much as a slight shift in aesthetic. Gone are the seasoned studio pros, in are a bevy of big-name producers all united in a mission to make Stone seem a little less like a '60s blue-eyed soul diva and a little more her age, a little more like a modern girl in 2007. So, the professional in-the-pocket grooves have been replaced by drum loops, the warm burnished sound has been ditched in favor of crisp, bright sonics, Harlan Howard covers have been pushed aside for cameos by Common and Lauryn Hill. It's a cosmetic change that works, at least to a certain extent: Introducing does sound brighter, fresher than her other two albums, pitched partway between Amy Winehouse and Back to Basics Christina yet sounding very much like Texas at their prime, but it's all surface change -- beneath that shiny veneer, Stone suffers from the two things that have always plagued her: songs that don't quite stick and overly labored singing. Since Introducing is a production-heavy album, the lack of memorable tunes doesn't quite matter as much because this about sound, not songs, but the singing is a problem: it's at once too big and too small, as Stone pushes every phrase too hard but never winds up seeming like the larger-than-life figure she so clearly desires to be. That's the kind of persona that could sell music like this -- music that gets by on its stylized tweaking of classic conventions (as opposed to her previous album, which celebrated classic conventions without offering a structure to support them) -- but too often Stone comes across like a contestant on American Idol, a voice in search of the right sound and the right songs to truly make her into a star instead of being a star right out of the gate. Which means this introduction isn't all that different than her debut, since it still presents a promising vocalist instead of a vocalist who's fulfilled her promise. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.80) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Stone employs her remarkable instrument with focus and nuance on INTRODUCING, and the result is an album full of solid pop-wise R&B." Q (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Tell Me 'Bout It' is as soulful as Betty Wright....'Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now' is an unalloyed joy..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] contains her best songs and most relaxed, assured performances..."

Few expected that the best soul singer to emerge in 2003 would be a 16-year-old British girl, but that was exactly the case when Joss Stone released her debut album THE SOUL SESSIONS. Mentored by legendary R&B vocalist Betty Wright, Stone covered both classic soul tunes and more contemporary fare, giving it all a feel that seemed closer to vintage Stax than to anything current. Though she's equally comfortable tackling material by Aretha Franklin or the White Stripes (in her own soulful fashion), Stone also co-wrote much of the material on her 2004 follow-up, MIND, BODY & SOUL.

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