Voyage to India

India Arie seems comfortable in her own body. She told us as much on both "Video" and "Brown Skin" from her stunning debut album, Acoustic Soul, which celebrated the diversity of feminine beauty, self-acceptance, and spirituality. She addresses similar themes on her second outing, although much of her original soul-scouring fire is gone. While she still preaches self-empowerment, many of her lyrics veer toward the trite, and that's not where we expected to go on this Voyage to India. In fact, there are very few self-revelatory moments like the ones on Soul. Arie seems bent on journeying to the center of womankind's mind, rather than unearthing more of her own autobiography, casting herself as adviser to the disempowered. But that is not where Arie shines. When she strips her voice down to its unvarnished essence--leaving all the imperfections in the mix--she is a lithe, ethereal presence. She's capable of raising chills, as when she sings of a man who foretells his death on "Good Man." Or on "Complicated Man," where she lets her voice run ragged, brimming with raw emotion while describing her imperfect love. Despite some glibness, this is still a voyage worth taking. --Jaan Uhelszki