Additional personnel: Common, Lauryn Hill.

Audio Mixers: Glenn Standridge; Chuck Brungardt.

Recording information: Blakeslee Recording co., North Hollywood, CA; Clinton Recording, New York, NY; Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas; Electric Lady Studios; Sonikwire Studios, Irvine, CA; The Plant Studios, Sausalito, CA.

Author: Joss Stone.

Photographers: Brian Bowen-Smith; Bob Scott .

Unknown Contributor Role: Jonathan Cohen "Meres".

British soul-pop singer Joss Stone was originally marketed as the teenage second coming of 1970s soul stars like Betty Everett and Ann Peebles. After two albums in that style (one consisting entirely of obscure soul covers) and a U.S. marketing push including several commercials for the Gap, Stone withdrew for a couple of years. INTRODUCING JOSS STONE, from the title onward, is an attempt to completely reinvent Stone's public persona, from a retro-soul blonde to a hip, happening redhead with her finger directly on the pulse of 2007 chart pop.

INTRODUCING JOSS STONE is produced by a bevy of contemporary hitmakers, though primarily Raphael Saadiq, and features cameo appearances by everyone from Lauryn Hill to ex-soccer star Vinnie Jones. But in the center of the drum loops, string sections, and slick electronics stands Stone's commanding voice. Opening track "Girl They Won't Believe It" sets the scene for the album as a whole, with Stone delivering a defiant vocal pitched midway between the appealing brattiness of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse's full-throated R&B roar. No longer a retro favorite for the old-school R&B crowd, Joss Stone presents herself as a neo-soul diva for her times.