Joss Stone ft. Common - 'Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now'
Well Joss, first of all we're going to make an appointment with Trevor Sorbie, sit you down in his chair and see if we can't do something about that thing on your head, because the joke has gone on long enough now - it's not funny any more, it's just terrifying. And then perhaps after that we can head into town and perhaps pick out a couple of new outfits - not an entire wardrobe, but just so you've got one or two items that show less than fifty colours at once.
And perhaps to top it off we could pick you up some shoes - again, not trying to being a dictatorial tool of the establishment here and deny you your right to choose to be barefoot, I'd just like you to know you have options, and...okay, fine, now this joke has also gone on long enough, so I'm going to stop making cheap jabs at Joss's personal appearance and concentrate on the song.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly Joss's biggest fan. Indeed, I generally find her quite annoying, with the faux Americanisms and rambly inappropriate speeches at awards ceremonies and so on. So I volunteered to review this thinking it'd be an excellent excuse to vent some bile only to discover that...I actually like it quite a lot. The melody at the beginning has echoes of TLC's 'Unpretty', which is no bad thing, and it goes on to be a surprisingly mellow, understated and (gasp!) not oversung slow jam. If I had to find one word to define what makes all the difference, it would be maturity: this manages to be grown-up without being dull or worthy, which is no mean feat.
I would still argue that since she moved on from 'The Soul Sessions' Joss has struggled to find material worthy of her remarkable voice and has rather disappointingly opted for middle of the road white-girl funk (and it's not really like we needed two Anastacias in the first place), and despite being a step in the right direction, this track doesn't get us fully back on course.
The rap from Common in the middle is not especially fascinating or relevant, but doesn't detract from the song's basic appeal either, so I'll give that a pass. But you might be looking at the star rating and wondering why the review has had an overall air of negativity, so let me redress that: I think this is a lovely summery tune with just the right amount of sweetness and an impressive sense of restraint from Joss. In fact, I think it's the best thing she's done in ages, so bravo.
Download: Out now
CD Released: June 18th
(Steve Perkins)
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