BLACK DIAMOND [ANGIE STONE]

This is a solo debut by a long-time backup singer who's worked with everybody from Lenny Kravitz to Buckwheat Zydeco. Kravitz and similarly retro balladeer D'Angelo are among the producers here, so the old-school soul sound of most of these tracks shouldn't be a surprise. "No More Rain in This Cloud," for example, cops its groove from early '70s groups like the Chi-Lites (its lyric quotes from Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears") and there's a very effective update/cover of Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" to boot. Proof that BLACK DIAMOND was made in the '90s: "Man Loves His Money," in which Stone declares her love for a paramour in bottom-line financial terms.