The Soul Sessions - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The Soul Sessions was met with positive reviews by music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone stated that "Stone shines on this impressive covers set" and that "he chooses songs wisely." Allmusic's Thom Jurek wrote that Stone "has unique phrasing and a huge voice that accents, dips, and slips, never overworking a song or trying to bring attention to itself via hollow acrobatics." Jim Greer from Entertainment Weekly noted that Stone "does have an extraordinary voice", but added that "the only misguided ploy on The Soul Sessions is a Roots-produced slo-mo cover of a White Stripes tune." Russell Baillie from The New Zealand Herald opined that "with her strong, emotive voice she nails it time and again, and with performances that aren't an excuse for the vocal acrobatic show you imagine this would have been had Stone been America's next bright young thing."

The Guardian's Dorian Lynskey described her singing as "rich, mature and agile but not showy". Nick Duerden of Blender magazine gave the album three stars out of five and commented that "Stone's voice is remarkably authentic, and the atmosphere she conjures is smoky and sleazy, pure mid-'60s Detroit." Jason MacNeil wrote for PopMatters that her voice is "more of a soulful voice than those so-called soul divas out there today" and that it "oozes sex appeal as Benny Latimore's piano weaves some magic." In his review for The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps remarked that "Sessions establishes Stone as a formidable interpreter." Andrew McGregor of BBC Music felt that the album "seems a bit of an artistic compromise, music from the rule book rather than the heart." The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was not impressed either, and viewed Stone's covers as "the kind of soul marginalia Brits have been overrating since Doris Troy was on Apple".