Joss Stone Top 5

Winter break has been mainly swayed by two artists: one I recently fell in love with [Björk] and another I love long time. The latter is Joss Stone who, since March, has been making me let my hair down with her sexy new album.

Introducing Joss Stone isn't a pop music revolutionary but it's a fun album to listen as background of daily activities or iPod walking. Her new red/purple hair tells that the girl has grown and become a desirable woman and the songs reinforce that.

But this list is about Joss's career as a whole. She's not an artist who reinvents the wheel at each work, but I love how young and competent she is. She was 16 when she broke through with that soulful The White Stripes's Fell In Love With A Girl Boy cover, that for me was impressive because of the raspery voice and the big woman tone, combined with a cool laid-back image instead of the virgin-but-horny girl that was still in vogue back in 2003. She was one of the few on the pop charts that were all about her voice and music, and not about her sexuality exploitation.

Now she's nude and graffiti-ed on her album cover and some lyrics are kinky, but when you listen to the album you remember why you started liking Stone in the first place: her voice and charisma.

Here are the songs by her that makes me melt or shake it like a polaroid.

Honorable mentions:

- The Soul Sessions: as a cover album I decided not to put my favorite songs from it on the list. But I could not not mention the marvelous versions she and producers Betty Wright and Steve Greenberg did; some of them [imo] overcame the original versions, such as The Chokin' Kind and "Fell In Love With A Boy" [Jack White himself said he loved the version and sometimes did Joss's version in concerts]. And how not to love the festive yeahs from Super Duper Love and the sorrowful and strong performance from Victim Of A Foolish Heart?

Top 5:

5. You Had Me [from Mind, Body & Soul]

How not to feel excited and waving aroung with it? I love everything about it: the independence yell implicit in the lyrics, the awesome guitar and man, how cool is that rap! This song sounds sometimes very bitchy and others kind of drama-queen: is there any reason for me not to love it?

4. Music/Music Outro [from Introducing...]

These are her love songs to music. She said in an interview that when she started writing for this album she still didn't have a center, until she wrote "Music". As any youngster Joss seems like she still haven't found what she's looking for; she described the feeling as a desire for fulfillment, something every human being has and most of us seek for it at the outsides. Joss has declared that when she wrote the song, that finally clicked: music is her Mr. Right. Somehow, if you turn off the cynic corner from your mind, that's inspiring.

"Music" features Lauryn Hill who performs a golden rap about how the art of rhythm is powerfully universal: "exercising anxieties/ fueling entire societies." As for Joss, she takes it to a more upclose and personal perspective ["perspective is everything," says Hill], treating Music as a long-time lover who is her synonym, singing as if she's about to make love with it at the end of the next verse.

"Music Outro" has a more classical sound and emblematic atmosphere; as if she took Hill's rap and transformed into another song with kind of epic-esque organs and horns.

3. Right To Be Wrong [from Mind, Body & Soul]

On her sophomore album Stone took more control over the creative process, having mostly self-penned tracks. That's a risk you take, to open up and hand yourself on a plate for the world to judge you. After TSS hit the world everyone knew she had the voice, but could she handle the pressure of doing something impressive enough to make her stand on? Of course Stone knew about this burden of hopes laid on her, every artist does, and seeming to at least want to shake herself away from that, she wrote this song. A perfect ignition, "Right To Be Wrong" feels like a prayer, as if she's baring herself to the world by saying "you're entitled to your opinion/ but it's really my decision"; that is enough to break any ice: how not to be humbled by a 17-yr-old who turns to you and say that?

2. Bruised But Not Broken/Torn And Tattered [from Introducing.../Mind, Body & Soul]

I cannot resist a good heartbroken ballad. It's beyond my drama-queeness, the sad songs when performed beautifully rock my socks. "Bruised" however isn't simply a sad song; it has a sorrowful melody indeed, but the lyrics are quite hopeful for the Soul and Blues standards. These two genres of music tend to be very melancholic, but "Bruised"'s lyrics, although performed with Joss's most deep tones, are filled with the light that you finally see when you realize you're still alive despite the heartache. "Torn And Tattered" is kind of the opposite. The melody has a cool groove that makes you wanna dance, but the lyrics are all about the recent heartache, still filled with darkness and not a pinch of hope.

I like the fact that they sound like Yin & Yang, completing each other somehow, that's why they're together here.

1. Headturner [from Introducing...]

It's sexy. It's horny. And it sounds like classic R&B. The Respect interpolation is as proper as it is cool, making the song sound like a classic, but still fresh. And talk about the horniness of the lyrics, with Joss playing a kind of cock-teaser, but it's not her fault the guy doesn't move forward and do something. In "Headturner" Joss sounds completely conscious of herself and her power; it's both very mature and confident, which for me is beyond sexy. Anyone who knows his own aura and knows how to attract everyone with it, have my total respect and attention. That's why this song hooked me ever since the very first listening.