Win Tickets to See Joss Stone

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 14, 2007 7:04PM

We always get a little suspicious when female R&B wunderkinden announce that their latest effort is the first release to feature their "actual" grown-up selves. Often that merely indicates that artists the public grew to know as adolescents are now comfortable wearing next to nothing whilst singing about just how much they like sex. What these starlets often miss is that heavy breathing and lots of skin are rarely any sort of actual window into the world of mature artistry.

And, on Joss Stone's latest, Introducing Joss Stone, she could have easily made that mistake since she does bare a lot of skin, and lets us know just how much she likes to have her man touch that skin. After two previous albums of fairly standard Motown-inspired fare delivered with a voice far beyond her years, Ms. Stone hooked up with Raphael Saadiq and constructed an album that played to her retro-strengths while catching up with new millennial sounds. The results pant, and moan, and strut, but they also shake, and breathe, and live. Whereas other starlets forget to add sensuality to the sex, Ms. Stone makes no such mistake. To be fair, she does occasionally overstep and stumble into caricature, but for the most part she's delivered a solid piece of work that displays a young artist coming into her own.

Chicagoist has two tickets to give away to Joss Stone's May 30 concert at House Of Blues. Enter after the jump for your chance to win and see if she can deliver the goods live.