This is the first entry into my Broken Format W/O. This review will be written in the form of a letter to the artist.

Dear Ms Stone,

Firstly, my apologies. When you first came onto the music scene in early 2003 with your debut album The Soul Sessions, I didn’t think you’d last. I quickly passed you off as yet another teen star who would have a hit song or two, sell a few million records, then disappear again. I judged you before I’d given you a chance. I was wrong to do that, but to be perfectly frank, you didn’t really impress me with Fell In Love With A Boy. It was a nice song and all, it just didn’t do anything for me. Soul didn’t really have a place in mainstream music back then, and in a lot of ways it still doesn’t. As a result, talented singers like yourself tend to get ignored in favour of such passing fads as Chingy, Hoobastank, and Skye Sweetnam, who have had about four hit singles between them.

But then you released your second single from that album, Super Duper Love, and my impressions of you changed. You have an amazing voice, and should put that kind of power into it more often. It wasn’t enough to make me pick up that album, but I began to take a lot more notice, and was very excited when you came back with this, your second album. You Had Me, the first single taken from it, hit radio and was immensely popular. That’s because you followed in the tradition of Super Duper Love and added some real power and energy to your voice. 2004 was a huge year for rock music, and for a brief, shining period of time, you were popular because You Had Me very nearly fit into that category.

However, you needed to prove you hadn’t taken the soul out of your music, which saw the release of the second single, Right To Be Wrong. Wow. It doesn’t matter what you do in the future, I doubt you’ll top this track. I first saw the video around the Christmas / New Year period, and for some reason it was just was I was looking for. I was obsessed with the latest Green Day album, but at the same time I was getting a little tired of rock, and no other genre was really producing any good music. When Right To Be Wrong came along, I was simply blown away. While Fell In Love With A Boy did nothing for me as a ballad, Right To Be Wrong did damn near everything. It led me in with those same few piano notes over and over, and then you came in with your voice and those lyrics. My God, those lyrics!

"I've got a right to be wrong
I've been held down too long
I've got to break free
So I can finally breathe
I've got a right to be wrong
Got to sing my own song
I might be singing out of key
But it sure feels good to me
Got a right to be wrong
So just leave me alone"

That’s just the chorus, but there’s also this from the second verse - "You’re entitled to your opinion, but it’s really my decision". I identified with this song. It just clicked. I mean, it was me. When you were writing this song, you must have been in the same kind of place I was when I first heard it. But best of all, it was me without being pop/rock/punk. I’ve identified with songs and lyrics before – Simple Plan’s "Perfect" for example – but it all had the same musical style to it. I identified with this on a different level because not only the lyrics, but the music itself, connected deep down with my soul, with what was going on right inside my very being. That’s just the song though. In the video you emoted. I swear you could be a damn good actress. You knew the right facial expressions to use and the right time to use them, and you did it without coming across as a bratty little teen who’s got it a hell of a lot better than she makes out. You came across as a real person. Bravo.

I knew I needed to own a copy of Right To Be Wrong, and to this day I continue my search for it on CD single, but I decided to pick up your album in the meantime. Despite being unsure exactly what to expect, I was a little disappointed. I think you’ve got an amazing voice, but so many songs on this album are soulful ballads. That’s exactly what Right To Be Wrong was, but a lot of the songs on this album don’t work as well as that does. Some of them don’t work at all. Spoiled, for example, starts off promising enough, but never quite goes anywhere. Don’t Cha Wanna Ride is a nice enough tune, but Joss, this particular track could do a lot better without the echo in the background. Get on to your producers about that one.

I knew this album wasn’t going to contain another power smash like You Had Me, or another soul-connecting ballad like Right To Be Wrong, but I guess in the end what I was really expecting was a few songs that struck a medium between the two extremes. The best example of you delivering on this is Less Is More. The nice little acousticy feel is par for the course on this album, but it’s the lyrics and way you use your voice that makes this song stick out. The shorter line lengths seem to suit your voice and enable you to sound more passionate, as if you believe in this song more than you believe in others. Also, it helps that the music isn’t as overbearing here as it can be. It gives the listener the chance to really focus on your voice.

Another standout track is Snakes & Ladders, perhaps the closest thing on the album to You Had Me. More than any other track, this tells a story and benefits from musical accompaniment rather than musical overload. Your voice is the dominant force on this track and carries it through superbly. You direct this track at one particular individual, and I applaud you for covering the whole "games" part of a relationship, but not being too forceful about it. Of course, this is a subject matter that’s been covered before, but a lot of artists don’t hold back, as if they’re under the impression that being forceful is the only way to get the message across. The way you do it, it sounds like you know the guy can understand subtlety.

However, to look at this album as a whole instead of just individual songs, I notice that what you’ve created here does achieve it’s goal of connecting with the audience in a way no other music is doing at the moment. This is best observed by your untitled hidden track, which appears some fifteen odd minutes after the rest of the album finishes. The long pause had me thinking the album had finished, but then the opening verse of this track came along. The piano here is simply beautiful, and the emotion you add to your voice does wonders for the track, and the way it changes tempo in the middle is nothing short of brilliance. Sure, it’s been done before, but it just goes to show how much you’ve used the right influences in your work.

However Joss, I’m sorry to say that there’s a number of tracks on this album that just don’t work for one reason or another. The opening notes of Jet Lag, for example, make me think I’m about to hear “For My Culture” by 1 Giant Leap. Then when your voice kicks in and the song really starts, I almost wish it was 1 Giant Leap. The tune of the song doesn’t change, the backing singers add nothing, and you don’t sound as though you’re making a lot of effort. The repetitive element also gets annoying. This could be a semi-strong b side, but I wouldn’t exactly call it album material. Tracks like Security, Understand, and Killing Time all come across as nothing more than filler, as they just don’t add any musical depth to the album. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like they’re bad songs, it’s just that they feel weighed down by mediocrity.

One certainly has to wonder what your intentions were when writing penultimate track Sleep Like A Child. Perhaps that’s what you’re trying to do to your audience. Or, more likely, you’re trying to lead the listener out of your album the same way you dragged them in. Unfortunately, this simply doesn’t have the uniqueness and brilliance of Right To Be Wrong. This is a track that clearly lacks any emotion or feeling whatsoever. What really makes me down on this track, however, is the way your soulful voice sounds so fake. It just doesn’t have the balance you found on other tracks. As a result, the song sounds long, monotonous, and just plain boring.

Joss, it’s clear that you have an amazing talent. You possess a voice many young girls strive for, and you have the ability to really connect with an audience. I do realize that this is the first album of your own music that you’ve put out - The Soul Sessions being all covers – but I feel you have a lot of undeveloped potential. When you put some power into your voice you can create some truly incredible songs, and the same goes for when you’re being soulful. Still, there’s a good balance to be found between the two before you can create a stunning album. You have the talent to do this – just look at tracks such as Right To Be Wrong as a good example. I foresee a wonderful career for you, but I think this album is a mere stepping stone toward that career. It’s a stepping stone you should be proud of, and I urge not to be discouraged by low sales. Although there may be other artists out there with less talent than you reaching higher sales figures, that’s just the way the music industry works. Your fans are always going to support you. I have faith in you. This is a good album, but I believe you can and will achieve a lot better.

Yours,
D. Cowie.

Recommended: Yes