Just under a decade ago the then 16-year-old chanteuse Joss Stone released The Soul Sessions. Making her a global success almost overnight, the collection of covers not only helped her to become a millionaire, but she was also elected as England’s latest homegrown hope at cracking the international music scene. Over the last nine years, however, she’s struggled to live up to the promise of her debut and after spending a fortune buying herself out of a pretty costly contract and weathering multiple public backlashes, she’s gone back to where it all began for The Soul Sessions: Volume 2.
Part of the appeal of the record is the fact that Joss has opted to dust off some relatively unfamiliar material to cover. Cuts by The Chi-Lites (‘Stoned Out Of My Mind’) and Sylvia (‘Pillow Talk’) all benefit from her warm and honeyed croon and the production by Steve Greenberg is effectively classic yet modern. Her rendition of Broken Bells’ ‘The High Road,’ is the high point, all sultry vocals and swelling chorus. Fans will love hearing the old school sounds getting a bit of a polish.