“Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do Now” innocently basks in romantic bliss. The artist is inspired by her man on “Proper Nice” and “Baby, Baby, Baby.” She refuses to let a failed relationship leave her in despair on “Bruised But Not Broken” (“My heart is still open … wounds will mend”). A quality song can foster love “to every race and kind” (“Music”), however …
Melodies and lyrics are practically idolized for their world-changing potential. Guest Raphael offers to pleasure Stone as often as she needs it (she prefers twice a day and says, “Come and do it to me”). Later she tells a guy seductively, “Put Your Hands on Me.” A brief commentary about change ends with a man stating, “You’ve gotta have the b-lls to change.” The female empowerment tune “Headturner” tells women to “work it” and sells men on Stone’s assets (“Emotional, mmm I got it/Sexual, mmm I got it/Spiritual, God knows I got it”). She adds, “No one can do the things that I would do to you.” Nude except for body paint, Stone and a man are entwined in a sexual position in one CD photo. A mild profanity mars “Arms of My Baby.”
From the graffiti in the artwork (we obscured her immodest cover shot) to the disc’s Motown sound, Stone’s latest effort plays up the retro atmospherics. Her sexual messages, however, are crassly contemporary.
