Soul Sessions, The - Joss Stone > Reviews > Soul's never sounded so good!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
Value for Money

Advantages:	Innovative, New Type of Music, Great at Soul & Jazz
Disadvantages:	Lacks something, Couple of good hits but quite a few weaklings !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Me : What’s this song?
Boyf : The Spice Girls
Me: Are you having a laugh? It sounds nothing like them.
Boyf: Alright Atomica Kittens or something.
Me: No it’s not, who sings this?

And this is how I came to discover Joss Stone, after an extensive and tricky conversation with my boyfriend – where he displayed his lack of knowledge within the world of pop and modern day music.

Now this album is totally new to the British charts, as is the type of music that is sung. It’s not your typical cheesy pop, not is it the ever-growing r n b – it’s a mix of soul and jazz. With a very powerful voice – strong, sexy, sultry and raspy at times it’s an ideal romantic album! There’s a mixture of songs, strong and weak lines as with most albums, with some upbeat and catchy songs and also some weaker and unmemorable links.

So who is the new girl everyone’s crazy about?? Well the most surprising thing is that she’s only 16, her real name hasn’t been revealed and she’s British – yes that’s right, we’ve finally found someone that hasn’t been manufactured! She’s from Devon on the South of England and up until two years ago she was just a normal little schoolgirl, two years ago she appeared on the show “Star for a Night” singing “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” the Aretha Franklin hit and “It’s Not Right” by Whitney Houston.

1. The Chokin’ Kind – From the first track onwards you can see the sheer potential and brilliantness of Joss Stone’s voice, there’s very little backing music (it slowly builds up throughout the song). This is a little mellow and laid back in comparison to the other songs on the album but by no means is it a disappointment. Her voice is raspy almost, moving and soulful at all times – at times she sounds almost breathless which makes for great music! Her voice has great adaptability, she can sing low and mellow or towards the end of this song she shows the ability of her voice to soar. There’s also backing singers present on most tracks, which just add to the greatness!

“Or find what you want boy, keep it, treat it sweet and kind, ohhh let it breath, don’t go making it, the chokin’ kind.” (4/5)

2. Super Duper Love – This is Joss’ current single, one that is being played on my local radio stations multiple times a day and always makes the “top 7 at 7!” It’s a great summer song, upbeat, feel good and lively, one to get you in a really good mood. There’s a hint of jazz in this song, which makes a great variation on the previous song, the build up to the chorus is fantastic! One thing I’ve noticed with all of her songs is that her voice always overpowers the backing music or singers, which is often unusual with singers these days.

“In the presence of all my friends, you stood there holding my hand, and you promised me faithfully, that you would be my only man.” (5/5)

3. Fell in Love with a Boy – Again there’s a definite hint of jazz here, the opening is quirky and jumpy and her voice is low, sultry and sexy. There’s an increase in speed towards the chorus where it relaxes out a little with a lot of “ahh” and “ohh!” You can just imagine this being played in a jazz club, so different from modern day pop music, really refreshing. This was released earlier in the year over here. The cover of the White Stripe’s version has definitely reinvented the song!

“Fell in love with a boy, I fell in love once and I lost completely.” (How true is this!) (4/5)

4. Victim of a Foolish Heart – Much more Norah Jones like than previous songs, a real opposite to the previous upbeat – this is much more relaxed, soulful and floating. The lyrics on this song are particularly emotive; they tell a story, which is quite sorrowful but yet, gives the song a sense of meaning and progression. It’s about a boy whose ex love has come back and the ex is trying to get the boy back off the singer, something most of us may be able to relate to.

“Now she’s back, to rekindle that old flame, she’s got a different angle baby, but she’s playing the same old game.” (5/5)

5. Dirty Man – Odd title and odd song, kind of made me feel all jumpy and brought paedophiles to mind, don’t ask why! It does show off her voice well, especially in the opening where she makes the declaration that “you’re a dirty, dirty man.” Her voice is soaring and falling continuously showing it’s sheer adaptability, there’s also minimum backing music just the odd strumming of guitars as accompaniment. I think there is meant to be an underlying meaning to the song – the idea of the man not being physically dirty just in his ways and the idea of him hiding secrets and things, so she’s going to sweep all the thoughts and problems away – at least I hope that’s what it’s about!

“I’m going to take my broom and sweep, all of the dirt, out in the street.” (3/5)

6. Some Kind of Wonderful – Returning back to the jazz genre, it really reminds me of the old Wrigley’s Extra advert, it’s got the same kind of sex appeal and charm to it. You can just see her singing this on TV, sitting down with a micro phone in front of her, her voice says it all – she wouldn’t need any dancers or anything else. Her voice will just have you captivated!

“Cos I got a sweet, sweet loving man, and he knows just how to try me right, coz my baby he’s alright.” (4/5)

7. I’ll Fallen in Love with You – Quite strong backing music at the start, unusual for Joss Stone’s songs. It’s much slower than the previous couple of songs and I’m not too keen on this, a little one track throughout, same beat, same level of singing. The majority of the chorus is sung by backing singers which takes away a little bit from the song.

“I’ve fallen in love with you, and you’ve just got to feel the same way too.” (3/5)

8. I Had a Dream – On the opening you could easily mistake this for Mariah Carey, gone are the sexy, sultry tones of the previous songs and introduced are the pop princess, floaty tones of Mariah or Jessica Simpson. The lyrics are quite thought provoking and emotive when listened to carefully but sometimes it’s quite hard to actually understand what she’s actually saying. The chorus does quicken up slightly, and backing music crescendos, as does her voice, which is probably, the only good bit of this rather unmemorable song.

“I had a dream last night, what a lovely dream it was, I dream we all were alright, happy in a land of us.” (3/5)

9. All the King’s Horses – Again another ambiguous and quite unusual title, based on the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme with constant references to it “couldn’t put two halves together again” and “ we sat on a wall.” Think it’s actually meant as a play on meaning or words, the idea of falling off the wall when falling out of love, and how you can’t put it together again. A very clever idea and it does work out quite well in the end – but not really one you’ll be singing along to!

“All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men, they couldn’t put two halves together again.” (4/5)

10. For the Love of You – Again we’re taken back to the idea of a pop princess like in track 8, it’s nearly 8 minutes long and incredibly long winded – I usually skip listening to this one, ideal to fall asleep to!

“I wanna be living for the love of you, all that I’m giving, is for the love of you.” (2/5)

In my opinion I’d definitely recommend listening to a couple of her tracks before buying this album, as some of the tracks were a little disappointing in my opinion. I adore “Super Duper Love” and was hoping for other songs of a similar tenure and beat to this but was slightly let down. If you like soul or jazz then this will be a major refreshing change to the other type of soul music available out there but for all you fellow pop lovers it’s perhaps one to miss out of your collection!
 

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Joss Stone