Stone Love

For the uninitiated, the word is “neo-soul,” and Angie Stone is one of its leading lights.

It’s been three years since Angie Stone’s last album blazed across the world’s easy-listening airwaves, and like her debut five long years ago, ‘Stone Love’ is still following the neo-soul road with smooth grooves, velvety vocals and laid-back beats. In between the echoes of Stone’s musical heroes (Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson, to name but a few) is the occasional foray into hip-hop and funk, intermittently lifting the album up a gear before easing back into the super-laid-back grooves we’ve come to expect from this prolific songwriter.

‘Stone Love’ picks up nicely where ‘Mahogany Soul’ left off, with Angie Stone continuing the neo-soul feel right from the start. The biggest track on the album is the decidedly nu-school hip-hop break, ‘I Wanna Thank Ya.’ While record company bosses will no doubt tout the collaboration as the track’s selling point, a tired sounding Snoop Dogg’s toasting contribution merely marrs an otherwise wonderfully funky, disco-soul track.

Apart from the delinquent Snoop, ‘Stone Love’ is filled with collaborations. ‘That Kind Of Love’ with soul diva Betty Wright sounds like it was made in the late-70s (a good thing when you’re talking about soul!) and ‘Stay For A While’ features a great performance from R&B singer Anthony Hamilton.

If you’re a fan of Angie Stone, ’Stone Love’ is an essential addition to your collection, but for neo-soul beginners the gentle pop-infused soul will make an easy entry into the sexiest of musical genres.