FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Joss Stone – Never Forget My Love
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INCLUDED in the final Revisiting…
features of 2022, I am focusing on albums from this year that either passed some by or deserve a fresh look before we wrap up. I will also look further back at great albums from the past five years that are strong but are deserving of bigger love. One album that is particularly good and some might not have heard is Joss Stone’s Never Forget My Love. Released on 11th February – a few days before an appropriate holiday -, her eighth studio album is among her very best. Not that she ever lost form, but many liked a return to the more powerful R&B sounds of her third studio album Introducing... Joss Stone. That gem was released in 2007. I will bring in a couple of reviews for Never Forget My Love. I thought that it should have got more reviews and coverage. Stone was involved in quite a few interviews and talked about motherhood and her personal life, but I am not including that. I am more concerned about her album and all things musical. Before getting to a couple of reviews – one that is a bit mixed and the other positive -, Smashing Interviews chatted with Joss Stone. I will include one bit about COVID-19, as Stone was affected and struck by it. For someone synonymous for her solid and incredible voice, she must have been worried that it would be damaged by the virus:
“Smashing Interviews Magazine: Yes, indeed. Are you completely recovered from COVID?
Joss Stone: Not really. You know, I don’t have COVID anymore, so that’s good. We tested the other day. But I still feel like absolute shit (laughs). M cough is still there. I was told it lasts about three weeks afterwards, so I’m trying to be patient. But I want my voice to come back now.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: So the virus affected your singing voice?
Joss Stone: Oh, yes. That’s how I knew I had it. I was on stage in Savannah, Georgia, and my voice just completely refused to work. I’ve never had that before. I was so confused. I was going to the side of the stage and saying to Chris, my sound engineer, “I don’t know what to do. It’s just gone.” I had to tell the audience, “I’m so sorry. My voice is just not doing it.” I was so embarrassed, you know. Oh, it was the worst. The worst. Oh well, shit happens. We move on. I have to reschedule that gig and go back and redeem myself (laughs).
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Since you couldn’t resume the tour, what have you been doing at home?
Joss Stone: I’ve just been home cuddling my baby and watching British Bake Off. I’m obsessed with that show. It’s a baking competition, and I think I’ve watched every episode now.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: The new album is wonderful. Wow, it’s been over five years since Water for Your Soul was released.
Joss Stone: Has it? Oh, gosh. It’s such a long time, isn’t it? It didn’t feel like that, I think, because I was so busy that I didn’t really notice it. But, yeah, it’s been a while. I’m really glad that I had time to do it.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Before you got together with Dave Stewart, what kind of sounds and songs were you thinking about for Never Forget My Love?
Joss Stone: I had this experience with Burt Bacharach. He had come to the United Kingdom to play some shows, and he asked if I would sing some songs for him. I guess there were about seven or eight. I’m in awe of him because I’ve been listening to his music since I was a kid. There are some really special ones that I have been influenced by without even knowing it was Burt, to be honest. But then later on, I learned who created those songs.
Then when I was asked to sing with him, I felt very nervous. So I wanted to really, really do a good job. I practiced them and practiced them, and whilst I was practicing them, I realized how beautifully they were put together and how deliberate they are and well composed and just classy, you know. So I don’t know. From that moment, I thought, “I want to make a record like that.” I was talking to Dave Stewart about that. I was just telling him what I’m telling you now. I said, “I love Burt’s style, and I don’t know where to begin with that. I’ve been trying to write songs like that, but I don’t know how to achieve it.” Dave said, “I know how. Let’s do it.” And he picked up his guitar and started to play something. I was like, “Oh, my God. Okay. Are we doing this?” He said, “Yeah. Let’s write the album right now. We can do it.”
So we started writing, and we came up with amazing ideas. And I was like, “I think this is it.” Then we went into the studio, and it all just came together. When the strings came on, that is when I knew we had achieved the goal. I just feel really weirdly proud of it more than normal. I was proud of it in a weird way because I felt like I couldn’t do it. Now, I’m just like, “Oh, my God. I made a really adult record.” (laughs) Without Dave, I couldn’t have done it. I just tried, and I couldn’t. He’s great.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Is the title track, “Never Forget My Love,” based on a true story?
Joss Stone: You know what? I suppose when I do sing it, I think sometimes of individual moments. But really I was thinking about unfortunately, I’m one of those people that didn’t find the love of my life when I was in high school. I had to kiss a few frogs, shall we say, before I found my prince. I have had moments in those relationships that passed that have been lovely. That’s why you get in the relationships. But in the end, you end up hating each other, making each other cry, making each other feel like shit and just disrespecting each other. That is how a relationship ends. In order for them to end in a clean way, it’s probably best you don’t talk anymore. That can be really sad, and you can end up grieving that person as though they died, and they haven’t. They’ve only died to you. It’s sad. In order to get over that grieving, we just think of the bad stuff because the second you think of the good stuff, you’re going to grieve again. So you just keep that bad stuff in the front of your mind, and that’s how you walk on. I think that’s a terrible shame.
When I think of how my past boyfriends think of me, I don’t want them to have a bad feeling. I want them to think of the love because it was real. It’s just so sad to hold that up there. So that’s what I’m really trying to say. Like, I know we shouldn’t have broken up, and we shouldn’t have been together, but think of me because I think of you. It is what it is, and that’s just the truth. It’s not the truth that my partner now likes to hear, but it is what it is. It’s the truth. We must try and think of the good.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Many of us find our true loves later in life. It happens more than you think, so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Joss Stone: Oh, really? Oh, that’s good. So we’re not alone. I don’t think we’re alone. When I got to 30, and I definitely wasn’t with the right guy then, I started to think, “Oh, God. Am I ever going to find the right one?” You start to lose hope a bit. Then one day, they just turn up, and it’s so beautiful.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: Absolutely. What’s your favorite song on the new album?
Joss Stone: My favorite one, I think, is “Love You Till the Very End.” That one just gives me goosebumps when I hear it. I just feel like crying every time I hear it. It’s a similar concept as “Never Forget My Love,” but it’s a very specific one because I’m just a deep, deep feeler, and I don’t let things go easy (laughs). So yeah. “Love You Till the Very End.” That one was heavy for me, but I love it. I’m glad how it turned out.
Smashing Interviews Magazine: You have been compared to Adele and Amy Winehouse, and that’s a great compliment. But do you ever think that comparisons to other artists maybe lessens your own standing as an artist?
Joss Stone: I know what you mean. I think it’s a good question because it’s natural to imagine if you were compared to somebody you don’t think is any good. That would be really worrying (laughs). But luckily, the people they compare me to, I actually think are really great. I take that as very lucky. Thank God they still think that I’m worth mentioning in the same sentence as Amy Winehouse or Adele because that makes me feel like it’s a good thing. But in the same kind of vein, we are not the same people. So of course, we’re going to have different thoughts and ideas and different ways of approaching a song. So I think it’s just a way of being able to discuss music. As long as the standards of comparison are good, I think I can always take it as a compliment”.
With incredible and consistently good songwriting from Joss Stone and David A. Stewart, Never Forget My Love is a satisfying album that pleased existing Stone fans and is accessible and will draw in new followers. I have known about her work since her debut album, and I think Never Forget My Love ranks alongside her very best work. Reaching number one on the UK R&B Albums (OCC) chart, I would recommend people to listen to a superb album. I am going to get to a pretty impassioned review. First, this is what AllMusic observed about Joss Stone’s eighth studio album:
“Strange as it seems, Never Forget My Love is Joss Stone's most R&B-oriented set of original material since Introducing Joss Stone (actually her third album), released 15 years earlier. Stone works again with Dave Stewart, her producer and writing partner on the rock and soul hybrid LP1 (actually her fifth album). As with that 2011 full-length, these songs come across as deliberately crafted in a way that differentiates them from the much greater volume of comparatively off-the-cuff material in Stone's catalog. The singer sounds more comfortable than she has in some time, whether she's referencing prime Burt Bacharach (with whom Stone performed in 2019), classic Memphis soul, or the Staple Singers, or bringing to mind a cross between Betty Wright and Bill Withers (specifically on the title song, a highlight). For the most part, this is full-tilt Stone -- a delight for those who want to hear her let it all out, even when the song doesn't necessarily call for it. She eases up only to tango on "The Greatest Secret" and jubilate on "When You're in Love," a sweet finale with all the elegance and casual grooving energy of an early-'80s Ashford & Simpson or Luther Vandross production”.
Old Grey Cat were impressed by Never Forget My Love. They noted how the songs are authentic Soul and R&B. A collection of ten amazing songs that will keep you coming back. I wonder whether she and David A. Stewart will collaborate again on Stone’s next album, as they have a writing partnership that yields big results:
“All the mistakes I’ve made/I wish they would all go away/It’s as if they/were tailor made for me.” Thus opens Joss Stone’s eighth album, Never Forget My Love. Though she’s singing about love and broken hearts, in some respects she could well be singing about her career to date, which—though she’s sold, according to Wikipedia, 14 millions albums worldwide—has never lived up to the promise of her stellar 2003 debut, The Soul Sessions.
Until now, that is.
Partnering with Dave Stewart for the first time since their 2011 collaboration on the flawed but worthwhile LP1, she’s crafted an album that’s accented by one sublime song after another. As a whole, as I tweeted yesterday, it channels Dusty Springfield circa her classic mid-‘60s period, though the production flourishes sometimes conjure Isaac Hayes and Minnie Riperton (“la, la, la, la”), too. “Breaking Each Other’s Heart,” the lead track, is a good example of the Dusty vibe. Strings support a seductive groove that sounds plucked from the past, though it’s not, while Stone emotes with the finesse of a veteran prizefighter who knows when to jab and when to throw a knockout blow. Like the album as a whole, a larger-than-life, timeless quality emanates throughout; it’s a fabulous song.
“No Regrets,” another highlight, both echoes and confirms that sentiment. It sounds like a long-lost Bacharach-David composition, just about, though—like the other songs here—it’s a Stone-Stewart cowrite. In short, it balances old-school pop with old-school soul, with the former coming by way of the Herb Alpert-like horns and the latter coming from Stone’s vocals. It also sports a subject, of casting out a negative force from one’s life, that’s as old as time yet, sadly, always timely. As with the other tracks, if you squint your ears you’ll almost hear Dionne Warwick, the 5th Dimension and Duffy singing backup beside Dusty. It’s the type of tune that takes up residence in the brain long after the music has faded.
The same’s true for the other tracks, which also take their stylistic cues from the songs of long ago. “You’re My Girl,” a catchy ode to friendship, could well be an Allen Toussaint-penned Irma Thomas outtake, while I wouldn’t be surprised if “Does It Have to Be Today,” about longing for one more day with a departing lover, was borrowed lock, stock and barrel from a previously unknown Stax/Volt collection unearthed in a used-record shop in Memphis; about the only thing missing from the track is the pops and clicks that are part and parcel of dusty vinyl. The same is true for “You Couldn’t Kill Me,” a dramatic tour de force about escaping an abusive relationship.
Nothing quite beats the addictive and joyous “Oh to Be Loved by You,” however, which at this stage is my favorite track. Accented by an infectious melody that’s equalled by Stone’s light-filled vocals, it’s a surefire mood-turner. It’s guaranteed to take that frown and turn it upside down, in other words.
The mention of Duffy up above came for a reason, I should add. Never Forget My Love is very much a stylistic throwback akin to Duffy’s timeless (to my ears, at least) 2008 debut, aka the “bag of songs” known as Rockferry. Unlike her past albums, in which Stone tried to meld her influences with a more modern sound, here she’s fully embracing the old—and, in so doing, is actually making it new again. (Or something like that.) Which is all to say, as I’ve noted above, echoes of the past can be discerned throughout, but that’s all they are—echoes. The 10 tracks aren’t pastiches, homages or appropriations, but the real deal. These are soulful and dramatic wonders sure to pull you—or, at least, me—back time and again”.
A fantastic album from Joss Stone, Never Forget My Love is well worth a spin. There have been so many albums released this year, it is hard to keep track of them all! If you have some time free, then I would recommend that you…
REVISIT this one.