mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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the soul sessions
The Soul Sessions A 16 year old girl making a name for herself in 2003 must be a product of the evil, short-sight minded record company, right? An attempt to create a new Britney Spears, a new Christina Aguilera. Well, most often, yes. In the case of Joss Stone, no. Forget about Jessica Simpson, Pink and all those other female pop icons today. Joss Stone has more in common with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and Etta James than with the dancing teenagers dominating MTV. The Soul Sessions features covers of American soul classics and at first you can make a case that such a young person could never make those songs sound authentic and honest, I beg you to think again. I first heard this album without knowing anything about Stone and wasn’t able to jump to conclusions. I’m sure that most people knows how it was to be young and not be taken seriously simply because of your age. How come we always do the same mistake as the older generation? Take Joss Stone’s interpretions of these songs seriously, as most songs are performed extremely well. There are some modern soul influences here and there, especially in the cover of the White Stripes’ “Fell In Love With A Girl” (or boy, as it’s called here). It’s interesting to hear a soul take on White Stripes, but it stays at interesting and is probably the album’s weakest track. Stone is as most affecting and soulful when sticking the more traditional and retro soul of the 60’s format. “Super Duper Love” is easily among the highlights, an relatively up-tempo song, that makes you feel good. “Something Kind of Wonderful”, the Franklin cover “All The King’s Horses” and the gospel influenced “Dirty Man” shines as well, but the strongest song is saved for the end. The naked version of the Isley Brothers’ “For The Love of You”, featuring nothing but Joss Stone’s excellent vocals accompanied by a single electric piano, is a stand out track. Emotional, beautiful and sincere. Whilst it’s most certainly not fair to compare this young British talent to someone like legendary Aretha Franklin, it’s undoubtly unavoidable to place her in any other category. Given some time, I’m sure Joss Stone will find her own style, but I do wish she doesn’t turn away from this style completely, as she does it really well. Joss Stone and last year’s success of jazzy Norah Jones makes me hopeful about the future for female artists. They both have defeated the market and showed that sometimes true talent will take you far enough.
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