First Night: Joss Stone, Brighton Centre

Age of innocence clashes with songs of experience

Joss Stone has crammed a lot into her short life. In the past three years, the 18-year-old, multi-million selling "soul sensation" who hails, according to one American writer, "from the little town of Devon", has duetted with everyone from James Brown and Gladys Knight to Mick Jagger, won an armful of awards (including, controversially, Best Urban Act at the Brits) and confused Bob Geldof with Gandalf during the recording of the Band Aid single.

At the same time Stone has blazed something of a fashion trail with her blow-dried hippy chic, a camera-friendly aesthetic which is reflected tonight by the woven rugs strewn across the stage and the fringed scarf wrapped around the mic stand. And even a lucrative deal with the clothing company Gap doesn't seem to have convinced her of the merits of shoes.

But, celebrity mates and fashion concerns aside, Stone would be nothing without that voice, a remarkable instrument that is frequently compared to Janis Joplin's white-soul wail. It's a sound that, if you've never heard it before, stops you in your tracks, and makes you reach for the rewind button - just to make sure you heard it right. It's a relief to find Stone avoids the vocal acrobats favoured by so many of her peers. And while there's plenty of emoting thought, you don't doubt her sincerity.

But when the initial shock of Stone's voice wears off you're left with a series of smooth funk, contemporary R&B songs and occasional soft-rock flourishes that bring with them whiffs of Lenny Kravitz. Indeed, the whole show is a determinedly middle-brow affair, inoffensive bordering on bland.

The finale "Some Kind Of Wonderful" starts out well, with some satisfying roaring from our host, morphs into a ghastly love-in involving Stone and her trio of backing singers, with each telling the others how, yes, wonderful wonderful they all are.

The main problem, however, lies in the gulf between the singer and the voice. On stage 18-year-old Stone is personable enough, though she comes across as less of a soul diva than a sixth-former, prone to hitching up her hipsters, flicking her white-blonde hair and giggling bashfully.

The lyrics don't always sit right either, suggesting as they do a woman who has not just been around the block but steamrolled right through it. In stark contrast, Stone exudes a well-scrubbed wholesomeness, which probably accounts for the preponderance of teenagers in tonight's audience.

Her hit single "Right To Be Wrong" is more convincing, not least because it deals with the inevitable, and more appropriate, folly of youth, while her soulful re-interpretation of The White Stripes' song "Fell in Love with A Girl" (re-titled "Fell in Love with a Boy", lest anyone be confused) is delivered with suitable girlishness.

With a voice like hers, you can't begrudge Stone her success and one imagines she has a long future ahead of her. Right now, however, her age is working against her, as is her band.