Water For Your Soul
Joss Stone
(S-Curve)
Two stars
After cementing her reputation as a British soul queen – long before Adele – it’s understandable, perhaps, that Joss Stone decided to try something new.
Encouraged by Damian Marley, a fellow member in the ill-advised all-star band SuperHeavy, Stone elected to release a reggae-inspired collection of songs for her seventh album.
The end result is the unfortunately patchy Water For Your Soul. While the 14 tracks are pristinely produced, they exhibit a lack of conviction that render them mere sketches as opposed to full-bodied pieces.
The good stuff is found in the top end. Love Me rides on a delicious summery groove with Stone smoothly cooing away. The soulful Stuck on You smacks of a Mediterranean vibe, with low-key Spanish guitars and chilled percussion, while the dub-ish Star finds Stone giving her best vocal performance – only to be let down by a cheesy Heal The World-type chorus. The rest of the album cruises by too lightly – the amount of wafer-light tunes, such as Molly Town and Clean Water, dilutes the whole affair to the extent that it descends into generic beach-lounge territory.
sasaeed@thenational.ae
