For many - myself included - Angie Stone has been the greatest soul singer of the last thirty-five years and (with Anita Baker in the eighties) the only one who can justly stand with the many great songstresses of soul music's golden years of the sixties and seventies. With influences from Aretha Franklin and Betty Wright in particular, she retained all of the qualities of classic soul while tastefully incorporating elements of hip-hop, to ensure her relevance to a younger audience.
I had two encounters with her BC (before covid); neither entirely successful, though through no fault of hers but the respective venues: the Ritz in Manchester and the Roundhouse in Camden.
All of her albums are worthwhile, indeed essential for anybody who isn't entirely happy to leave soul music exclusively in its illustrious past. Her two biggest tracks are worthy of special mention: the genius way they heavily sample classic soul tracks without simply recycling them, transforming them both into something special in their own right. Gladys Knight and the Pips' (and others) Neither One of Us and the O'jays' Backstabbers become No More Rain and I Wish I Didn't Miss You respectively.
In the nineties, prior to her solo career, she featured prominently on two albums by Vertical Hold, which I hadn't listened to recently, but remembered as solid albums. Having revisited them, while they perhaps lack the big tracks of her solo years, they're consistently good from start to finish.
It's hard to imagine we'll ever hear her like again. Steve T
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