Introducing Joss Stone - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Introducing Joss Stone received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 22 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard felt that "here are a couple of moments on Stone's third album when she clobbers a melody with enough showy vocal oomph to make even Christina Aguilera fans squirm. But for the most part, Stone employs her remarkable instrument with focus and nuance on Introducing, and the result is an album full of solid pop-wise R&B." Mike Joseph of PopMatters commented that "t's certainly the first great R&B album I've heard this year. While there's still the occasional affectation that I wish she would get rid of, Stone has grown into her music quite a bit."

Tim Perlich, writing for Canadian magazine Now, noted that "ith the fast-maturing Stone gaining greater control of her powerful pipes and a recent breakup adding to the underlying sexual tension while stoking the creative fire, the craftily reconstituted 70s R&B concept works exceptionally well." Blender critic David Browne gave it three stars out of five and wrote that "early every song is a souped-up retro-funk tornado, pushed along by blaxploitation-soundtrack guitars, scenery-chewing backup singers and, of course, Stone's husky pipes." Both Billboard and Entertainment Weekly praised Saadiq's production; the former called it "brimming with horns and seriously in-the-pocket rhythm sections, but there are also enough hip-hop touches and contemporary arrangements to keep the tracks in the now", while the latter opined that "e brings a strong focus to Introducing Joss Stone, blending the digital crispness of modern R&B with Stone's preferred flavors of retro: swooping Motown-style strings, girl-group background vocals, gutbucket soul guitar." In a review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine believed that "Introducing does sound brighter, fresher than her other two albums, pitched partway between Amy Winehouse and Back to Basics Christina yet sounding very much like Texas at their prime, but it's all surface change."