Joss Stone: The Soul Sessions : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

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 wisely -- Laura Lee's "Dirty Man" and Joe Simon's "Chokin' Kind" are elegant and passionate all at once. Sometimes, as on "I've Fallen in Love With You," Stone's gifted backing troupe keeps it tame so as not to overpower her, but on her inspired seven-minute rendition of the Isley Brothers' "For the Love of You," she shows that, if need be, she can do it all alone.

JON CARAMANICA
(RS 934, October 30, 2003)