India.Arie, Testimony: Vol 1, Life and Relationships

Three years ago, the Grammy-winning Voyage Around India proved India.Arie was more than just the troubled conscience of the neo-soul scene. Now she's out to show she can live without love with Testimony: Vol 1, a long, bumpy journey through the death of a relationship and Arie's emergence into womanhood. A confessional that falls in the cracks between Jack Johnson's acoustic naivety and Lauryn Hill's hip-hop-influenced honesty, Arie's smooth, husky voice isn't enough to forgive the jaw-dropping simplicity and clumsiness of her songs. Take Wings of Forgiveness, where she equates pardoning her ex with Nelson Mandela forgiving his oppressors. There's Hope is a smug tale of how the unhappy millionairess was shown the light by a blind, poor man in Brazil. Akon's appearance on the intelligent pop of I Am Not My Hair lightens the mood, but although Arie's broken heart is in the right place, only the sassy funk of I Choose gives reason to look forward to Vol 2.