New Music: Joss Stone

Everything comes in cycles.

Especially trends in popular music.

Sometimes it's hard to tell what's driving it. On one level, an artist's work is a collage of their influences, colliding with new conditions of the present time in which they find themselves. Prince arrives in the late 1970's, and his brand of funk, rock and new wave certainly sounds of the period. But what would His Royal Badness sound like if there had never been a James Brown?

At the same time, market forces also drive our taste for nostalgia. A few years ago I started noticing laundry detergent and car commercials using songs I grew up on, or images that would "speak" to me. I had become, seemingly overnight, a market niche. In music, when one artist breaks the mold or a "trend" is spotted, labels run behind other labels, trying to find their next "so and so."

So the vicious cycle continues. In the pop world, we are in 1980s retro-mania. From Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado's synth new-wave sounds (courtesy of super producer Timbaland) to the studded belts and mo/fro-hawks and skinny jeans rocked by the post hip-hop youngsters (and some not-so youngsters).

But the 1980's were also heavily influenced by the 60's. And there are several artists that the gay boys have been fawning over with recent recordings available who embody an 80's/60's soul sound that is in part driven by their influences as much as by labels. This is the first in a series I am going to do about this new wave of 60's retro sounds in pop music.

The most famous artist in this retro-trend is Joss Stone, who today drops her third disc, ironically titled Introducing Joss Stone. Stone, the British-born blue-eyed soul singer has had industry buzz since the release of her first album, . On this new record, her vocals are more mature, and veteran producer Raphael Saadiq work on this album reflects in a much more restrained vocal attack. The result is actually more soulful than her first two efforts, which are riddled with over-used vibratto.

But unfortunately there are still many songs that are too retro for their own good. The first single, Tell Me Bout It, is a guitar-laced track reminiscent of James Brown and Etta James (More recently, it sounds a lot like Joi's Crave, from Star Kitty's Revenge--another Saadiq collaboration).

The lyrics from this single are plain old boring and trite, with "tell me bout it/tell me how you feel/and if the feelin's real/let's seal the deal."

Do people still say "seal the deal?" Hardly. This song, and several on the album, still sound like she's trying too hard, but perhaps she, at barely 20, is still learning what to do with her voice.

The standouts on this album are the most contemporary sounding-- retro without being nostaligic--tracks. On Tell me What We're Gonna Do Now (with hip-hop MC Common), Stone's vocals are laid back, and she rides the groove of the track, and a playful banter happens with Common's very natural rhyme style--it sounds like they're talking to each other, and not like an obligatory rap added to sell a few more units. The music itself uses elements from the 60's, which she seems to be mired in, without sounding like a lame attempt at recreating a time long past (See John Legend's Once Again for an example of a retro soul sound while still being relevant). Another headnodder is a song featuring Lauryn Hill called Music. Hopefully this will inspire Ms. Hill to get back in the studio, but I digress.

Joss Stone can ride this wave of nostalgia--for a minute. But in order to really break thru as an artist with an identity of her own (especially if she's interested in capturing the hearst of true sould music fans), she will have to figure out how to hang on to her influences without trying to be them.