Album Review: Angie Stone - "The Art of Love & War"

Angie Stone's producers have finally gotten it right. On Angie's previous albums, her mature, sometimes husky vocals were wedded to breakbeats, samples and other song elements that seemed to contrast with her old school Soul vibe. But on her third album, The Art of Love & War, her voice is aided and abetted by lush, mature, mid-tempo backing tracks which do a lot more to help her songs than those recycled beats and pseudo-hip hop stuff ever did. And now that she's singing over the right type of instrumentals, things have clicked. This is one of the most cohesive, most soulful R&B albums of Angie's career so far.

Angie Stone's voice is like a thick, warm blanket: it can envelop you and provide a good deal of comfort and pleasure. Although she's never achieved the massive success in America that some singers with half of her vocal ability has, she's still one of the more talented R&B/Soul singers around today, and her fourth album, The Art of Love & War, reinforces that fact.

Angie's sophisticated, yet laid back singing style may not be for everyone, but for anyone in Angie's age group (mid-40s to early 50s) you'll eat up her style, which is semi-old school, but not out of touch with the modern era. Among the album's best material is the first single, "Baby," which features the incomparable Gospel singer Betty Wright. The two ladies' voice complement each other perfectly as they sing about someone who abandons his honey after finding success.

One of the refreshing things about The Art of Love & War is that even though the album's theme - and most of the songs - are about the ups and downs of of love and life, Angie sings about her issues in a mature, confident manner that's relatively low on histrionics and contains zero over-the-top drama. Even on the painfully personal relationship songs "Make It Last" and "Go Back to Your Life," there's a level of class and dignity that's missing in much of today's music, R&B and otherwise.

The album does take a few wrong turns: the funky "Play With It" and celebratory "Pop Pop" are too repetitive and don't quite fit in with the album's other 12 songs. But despite its small flaws, The Art of Love & War is arguably the best album of Angie's career.