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Label: Motown
Sound/Style: positive, ambitious blend of hip-hop, acoustic pop and classic soul

By Steve Morley

(UMC.org)—Opinions are radically opposed regarding the latest work from India.Arie. It seems the controversy is centered, oddly, around the young singer/songwriter’s positive messages and uplifting songs, which her critics deride as musically slight, simplistic and over the top. India.Arie’s goal, since her emergence from obscurity five years ago, has been to transform modern R&B into a more diverse and buoyant sound that avoids stylistic clichés. On Testimony, Vol. 1, Life & Relationship, she succeeds, removing the popular style’s abrasive edge with class and musicality. To fans of typical hip-hop—an unapologetically worldly music—Arie is seen as the ice cream vendor at the beer tent.

If one maintains a particularly open attitude (an attribute that figures prominently in her songs), it’s possible to understand why her new album leaves some cold, just as her mentor Stevie Wonder’s music can do when his emotions are unchecked. “Isn’t She Lovely” may indeed be a joyous tune about the miracle of a new birth, but it won’t ring the inner chimes of someone who’s just lost a daughter or who has difficulty conceiving. On Testimony, Vol. 1, India.Arie often hovers around a sentiment something like “Isn’t Life Lovely”—at times, perhaps even “Isn’t India Lovely”—which might be hard to swallow for those who are struggling to get by or haven’t yet embraced principles of self-love. Still, that’s a voice that needs to be heard, especially in the R&B arena, which frequently caters to a dour or escapist urban worldview.

Ironically, these songs are in danger of coming under fire from conservatives as well, as the singer’s celebration of self and her lip service to God (“If Jesus can forgive crucifixion/ Surely we can survive and find resolution”) are never overtly linked to the Christian gospel. Yet while no immediate evidence of a Christ-rooted faith is forthcoming, her sincerity is both clear and laudable when she opens the record with the serenity prayer and an added request for the ability to “love with an open heart.” Arie is all about breaking down barriers, which means refusing—at the risk of losing airplay—to accommodate radio-ready categories, those commercial contrivances that often propagate a form of segregation. She does this most notably on “Summer,” a bold collusion between well-known players in the contemporary Christian, country and progressive jazz genres (Cindy Morgan, Rascal Flatts and bassist Victor Wooten, respectively). This unusual four-way mash-up of musicians and co-writers results in an irresistibly bouncy number with an almost bumpkin-like hillbilly guitar figure. Lyrically, the song laments the passing of a season, making it more complex than it might have been (and providing ammo against complaints of one-dimensionality). Moods conflict similarly on “Good Morning,” a song dealing with the devastating end to a relationship but concludes with hard-won hope, set to an ambitious arrangement. A three-part synthesizer harmony line (betraying her Stevie Wonder influence) snakes gracefully through the acoustic guitar and strings, while the track’s intelligent use of technology includes backward guitar strums that suggest a “sucking out” of the bad air she seeks to replace. This primes the pump for the self-affirmations that begin flowing in the rhythmically lithe and spacious “Private Party,” the point in the disc where she realizes her own worth and the sanctity of her physical body. From here, she moves on to issues outside herself, such as revisiting the ghosts of slavery as she celebrates her freedom on “India’s Song,” and extending the notion of forgiveness and reconnection to include races and age groups as well as one-on-one relationships (as she does on a remake of Don Henley’s “Heart of the Matter”).

If naivete or mega-enthusiasm is indeed lurking in the artist’s self-discovery, so are wisdom and a dogged determination to find the high road and point the way to others on similarly difficult journeys. Wisdom only has value to those who seek and recognize it; therefore, a line like “the highest expression of love is to give without expecting” can seem an empty platitude and even create resentment on the part of the beholder who feels preached at. How much more meaningful might the idea seem to one whom has arrived at that revelation through personal discovery. On Testimony, Vol. 1, India.Arie isn’t necessarily force-feeding her own philosophy as much as she is modeling how anyone can take a sad song and make it better.

Steve Morley is a freelance music journalist living in College Grove, Tenn.

This review was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Audio Clips

These Eyes

The Heart of the Matter

Private Party