The Art Of Love & War

Angie Stone's conceptual album

For the true connoisseurs of soul and R&B music the name of Angie Stone is far from the bottom on the list of the best vocalists. Born in South Carolina she began singing in a church choir, and at the beginning of the 1980s became a member of hip hop/funk band Sequence. The way to glory continued with the work in the collective Vertical Hold during the 1990s that released to albums with her participation, and then collaboration and affair with singer and songwriter D'Angelo, with whom Stone has a son. In 1999 the singer's debut solo album Black Diamond was released on Arista Records to go platinum some time later, and in the following years two more records, Mahogany Soul and Stone Love, followed. For these albums Angie collaborated with Clive Davis' J Records. This year the reborn Stax Records offered her a contract and the singer accepted it gladly. Thus Angie Stone's fourth album The Art Of Love & War became the first significant record in the new era of the recording company and taking into account the singer's talent, some really lucky collaborations and the album's conceptuality will guarantee the success of both sides.

The problems of relationships on The Art Of Love & War

The name of the album The Art Of Love & War speaks for itself – all the tracks on it are devoted to various types of relationships and not problems that the couples usually have to overcome but the relationships with oneself as well are touched upon here. The opener Take Everything In is a soft R&B composition with a sultry beat, and the first single Baby featuring Betty Wright who is splendid on gospels is a marvelous radio friendly old school soul song. Here We Go Again telling of how to save a relationship and make it go on pleases with Angie giving full swing to her voice, and track Sometimes is again a classic R&B song with elements of rap in Stone's performance. One of the album's most interesting tracks is Go Back To Your Life, an a capella composition with a philosophic implication. One of the songs that were not written by Stone personally is These Are The Reasons, a splendid slow anthem perfect for a romantic date, while My People performed with James Ingram is a typical representative of the so called black music, remarkable for the innumeration of the world's most famous African American celebrities. Rhythmic tracks Play Wit It and Pop Pop are both suitable for a dance party, and the closer Happy Being Me featuring Pauletta Washington is a soothing anthem of positively thinking strong women.

Faithfulness to the old school

During her musical career Angie Stone has tried to act various roles being a band member, a back vocalist and finally a soloist. Besides, some have criticized her for constant change of labels. Yet no matter what one thing in her life has always remained the same – the love of soul and R&B music. Angie Stone is one of the few performers of today who still stick to the old southern school of soul, the voice of the previous generations always sounds in her songs. On the one hand, some may accuse her of not being modern, but in fact the singer is greatly respected for her faithfulness to the old school. Each new creation is her means to tell of what worries her most of all. The same goes about The Art Of Love & War. The most personal track for Angie here is Happy Being Me. There have been significant changes to the better in her life lately, and she is eager to share her feelings with the world. The most important for Stone is that she has finally found real love, has two wonderful children and takes the best of every single day. Hopefully she remains faithful to her principles further on and continues to please her enormous fan base with her great positive music.