Unexpected

Audio Mixer: Alvin Speights.Liner Note Author: Angie Stone.Photographer: Kevin Goolsby.On her second album for Concord's Stax imprint (and fifth overall), Angie Stone delves deeper into funk and hip-hop than on her previous outings. Her last offering, The Art of Love & War, was a critical and commercial triumph for the vastly underrated vocalist, and topped the Billboard chart. With a slew of producers including Sly Williams, Willie "Chuck" Shivers, Karrim King and Fitzroy Reid, Steven "Supe" White, Jonathan Richmond, Jazze Pha, and Stone herself, these dozen tracks continue to reveal her versatility as a vocalist and recording artist; she can sing whatever it is she wants to with equal verve, authenticity, and flair. Despite the slicker and more diverse sounds on Unexpected, the soul quotient is high, even if this isn't strictly a neo-soul album. The new beat consciousness reveals itself most on the title track, which is hard funk at its 2009 best. Cuts such as "Free" might have c