Track Listing

1. Intro
2. Video
3. Promises
4. Brown Skin
5. Strength, Courage & Wisdom
6. Nature
7. Back To The Middle
8. Ready For Love
9. Interlude
10. Always In My Head
11. I See God In You
12. Simple
13. Part Of My Life
14. Beautiful
15. Outro
16. Wonderful
17. Strength, Courage & Wisdom (Live Version)
18. Video (Video)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35782 in Music
• Released on: 2001-10-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Extra tracks
• Running time: 71 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
India.Arie's Acoustic Soul is just as advertised: grooving soul music with an acoustic bent. Arie herself plays guitar, supplemented by strings (instead of synthesizers) and drums (instead of drum machines). The first single, "Video", is a calm, confident ode to self-love, comparing the dreadlocked, petite Arie to the average girl in a video. Arie is indeed anything but average: her debut marks the auspicious return of the black female singer-songwriter, in the vein of Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Tracy Chapman and Dionne Farris. If you like their music, with thoughtful lyrics and layers of instrumentation, you'll love this album. "Video" is fabulous, but other high points include "Ready for Love", a lament that smoulders before slowly building to a crescendo, with tinkling piano, guitar and cello swelling beneath the vocal. "Strength, Courage And Wisdom" is an optimistic anthem that'll have you clapping your hands and swaying from side to side, and the best track on the album, "Simple", is a straightforward love song with a pulsating beat. Acoustic Soul may not be full of radio-friendly tracks, but every track is strong, and the disc improves each time you press play. --Courtney Kemp

CD Description
Debut album from India.Arie who has been compared to ErykahBadu and Jill Scott. Melodic R&B and soul with influences of roots, blues and hip hop. Includes her debut single 'Video' and the follow up 'Brown Skin'.

Customer Reviews

Spiritual Bliss
There is some music that makes you want to scrunch your toes tightly, squeeze your eyes shut in ecstasy and just scream. The music of India.Arie is so pure and uplifting that it makes you want to do just this. Guitar in hand, India.Arie breezes through this album effortlessly hitting all the right notes, and the funky undertones make you feel so good that you just can't help dancing along. This girl has been inspired by many great blues and soul musicians, all of whom are given credit in various songs on her album, and their influences can be heard in her music. Her voice is not unlike that of the fantastic Lauryn Hill yet more silky and mellow, but she maintains her originality throughout. The lyrics of the first track and debut single "Video" would not seem out of place in a Maya Angelou poetry collection, and are every bit as inspiring and "right on". This album needs to be played up loud, accompanied by the sun for full effect. Improve your life and go and buy this!

Sensuous, chilled, uplifting
These are just three words that leap to the forefront of my mind when I first heard India Arie's fantastic breakthrough album. Rarely do you ever have the sheer, smug pleasure of buying an album on the strength of one single (as I did, having seen India playing "Video" on TOTP a few weeks back) and subsequently discovering that you have stumbled upon a musical creation of such magnificence, that you connect with so instantly.

India's talent shines through, the production is perfect, and there's something for everyone, and every mood in life. From the the sultry "Brown Skin" which smoulders seductively, to the the audibly anguished "Ready for Love", and the funky "Part of my Life", India Arie's Acoustic Soul will bring you to a musical nirvana.

Just buy it. You will NEVER regret it!

an album with a soul...
India Arie is an incredible artist. Every song in this album professes honesty; there are no implicit lyrics, no artificiality and hypocrisy. It is like listening to a person opening up her heart, singing out her experiences and her emotions attached with them.

The song "Video" is an inspiring song, reflecting the artist's personality and her views about the kind of world we live in. Other tracks such as "Brown Skin" and "Ready for Love" shows a more sensual side of India. The album also allows us to jive away with the songstress. Tracks like "Nature" and "Strength, Courage and Wisdom", do just that.

My liking favours the track dedicated to Stevie Wonder, and as the title suggests, it is "Wonderful". It is very uplifting and this song shows India's respect to a legend.

A definite, must-have album to purchase!