I must admit I've never heard of Cornell Stone before although his website says that he performed in various showcases, musical production and concerts around his hometown Washington and that he has attended the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts previously. But then, I don't live in Washington...
Listening to Cornell's voice and songs it's quite obvious that he cites the likes of Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye as his influences. So you may have an impression of what to expect. Or to put it in Cornell's own words 'Some of my tracks are heart-wrenching, love sonnets, while other songs on the album are much more passionate. You know, those 'Let's get together tonight and don't forget to bring your toothbrush-kind of songs,' '. So it really isn't a surprise that Cornell sounds like a mixture of Teddy and Luther...the surprise may be why he isn't signed with a major label considering his voice.
Just to show us how much he learned at the Duke Ellington School Cornell wrote or co-wrote most of the songs and even (co-)produced some songs.
And Stoned is mainly a good album (although I could have done without the interludes and the inclusion of some rap verses on Funked Up or the short version of the decent Luther Vandross cover Superstar. But we also get a long version of Superstar w/o rap just perfect for people like me :-)
And is it just me or does the excellent She So Beautiful really uses a hook from Marvin's I Want You?
I Wanna Know opens with an acapella intro and features Cornell doing some talking about a nice groove with some background vocals by Yendi Brown, so it's more like a 70ies song by the likes of Issac Hayes or Barry White.
The Whole Nine is one of the aforementioned let's-get-it-together-tonight-songs as is Let Me or When You Need A Little Somethin.
Ok, Cornell 'the lover man' Stone hasn't re-invented the wheel with Stoned but delivers a good album of contemporary soul music and it's worth checking out.