Best of 2003: Joss Stone — The Soul Sessions

In a world of Pop Idols, Academies, autotuners and backing tapes , this album is something special. "I only meant to love you." - the first line of the album is delivered with no accompaniment, just the bare sound of a 16-year-old pouring her heart and soul into the Joe Simon classic "The Chokin' Kind". Yes, it's a short album, and yes it's all covers. But the covers aren't the usual standards, and the one song that you're likely to recognise, The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl" has been disassembled beyond all recognition, transformed into a soulful groove. This is an album that makes you remember that the music world is not just what Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, and Lou Pearlman dictate to us…