ANGIE STONE - STONE LOVE

Amidst all the whiny, record label-assembled R&B bullshit groups tainting the reputation of a music made famous by legends like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Anita Baker, there are a slowly growing handful of vocalists I keep a close eye and ear on: Jill Scott, John Legend, D\'Angelo, and Angie Stone. I shit you not; my honky ass has actually known about Angie Stone for five years now. I used to play the hell out of her debut, Black Diamond, at one of my old jobs. I couldn’t get enough of it. It was funky in a gritty, sexy kind of way.
Fast-forward to now, and she’s back for her third album, Stone Love. Does it hold up to the last two? Let me put it this way: the first song on the album, \"I Wanna Thank Ya\", is about as summertime as you could possibly get. And it has Snoop Dogg. That makes it twice as nice.
Snoop aside, Stone Love is a nice little record to tuck away for when you need to make the room all romantical-like. Miss Angie makes everything sound sweet and happy-- even heartbreak! Listen to \"You Don’t Love Me\", and tell me you don’t get it stuck in your head. There’s something so pleasantly Sixties/Seventies about it, yet at the same time, not so outdated. Watch her back-and-forth with young R&B gun Anthony Hamilton on the bouncy, springtime \"Stay For A While\", or turn out some boom-box-on-the-stoop funk with \"That Kind Of Love\". It all reminds me why I was so into her way back when.
Stone Love is an optimistic, funky soul record willing to fight to preserve the integrity of its genre. Forget what might be more popular, and look into Angie Stone.