We mean this:



And yet, we also mean this:



Exhibit A is so appalling it makes us want to just give up on music, on writing, on using our eyes to look at things. We're fairly sure it's incredibly symbolic of Joss Stone's current argument with her label, who refused to release the album (oh, for why?) earlier this year. Is she making a grand comment about feeling trapped? Is she saying she feels like just another product, another paint-by-numbers model waiting for someone else to make her feel complete? It's all terribly complicated. It's also very poorly finished, crudely designed and actually a little bit disturbing in a Boxing Helena kind of way.

Exhibit B not only misses the boat on covers of Candi Staton songs by about a year, it's also incredibly dull. As in, it's almost miraculous how someone can turn a song like 'You Got The Love' (or 'You've Got The Love, depending on who you trust) into something as flat and lifeless as this. If this was playing softly in the background in our nearest Starbucks we would burn it to the ground.