Recent years have seen a flow of male artists come along to carve their name in our minds where R&B is concerned. Maxwell, D'Angelo, Musiq, Montell Jordan, Bilal and Tyrese are just a few to show their talents but every now and then someone comes along that seems to shine a little more than the others.  

So enter newcomer Cornell Stone who's debut release 'Stoned' is the toast of the town as of late. The soft toned baritone who hails Washington DC lists his influences as Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross  and has been shopping around his music for a while now (even selling it from the trunk of his car) and showed tremendous resilience staying true to his game plan. In doing so his demo was picked up by local DC label Reveley Records who in turn put out his full length debut.

The disc as a whole is a collective slice of modern R&B with both mid-tempo tracks and ballads throughout.  The debut single is the compelling 'She's so Beautiful' with it's mysterious mystic opening sequence that leads to a wickedly groovy bass line with Cornell shining in his own element - pure class. The emotionally charged 'Funked up' offers a message to all fathers who doesn't support their children  (shape up) and then there's the incredible remake of the Luther Vandross classic of '83 'Superstar' (originally recorded by The Carpenters some 12 years earlier) this updated version is worthy of it's predecessors it has all the characteristics of the original with the flavour of today's rhythm.

Other notables are 'The Party', 'Lesson Learned', the smooth ballads 'The Whole Nine', 'When you need a lil' something' and  'I wanna know'. The album is available now at a record store near you I suggest you get yourself a copy.  A great debut from this up and coming talent - A TY-D pick here through and through.

TD

Listen to "Superstar"

Listen to "She so beautiful"