Posted on 09/23/2009
Stop me if you've heard this one - teenage piano prodigy rebuffs the classics oft-heard in recital halls to pen original soul inspired Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Jill Scott, et al. In the spirit of this album's title, it's time for a little truth. If you opened a can of Adele, dumped her on a plastic Dixie plate with Alicia Keys and stuck it in the microwave, you'd have a perfectly nuked R&B TV dinner, evidently 21 year old Laura Izibor's favorite dish. Her voice is fine, the songs are decent, but the bland, piano-led tracks are familiar and uninteresting. Everybody can't be as charismatic, soulful and clever as Santigold, Lauryn Hill or Amy Winehouse, but you'd think more singers would try. With such strong predecessors from this generation, anything less feels like a waste of time. The album is okay, but who wants to spend 5 whole minutes downloading 'okay?'

That's not to say Let the Truth Be Told won't have R&B fans swaying from side-to-side. "I Don't Want You Back" is full of the relatable sentiment fans of 'I'm leaving you' songs love. At least the gospel choir-backed "Mmm," tries something a little different, though the idea of telling the object of your affection, 'You make me wanna hum for three minutes' probably doesn't work as well in real life as it does for the purposes of this song. "Shine" and "What Would You Do" are simple and enjoyable as is the bouncy single, "From My Heart to Yours," despite being riddled with every imaginable love song cliche (butterflies, birds singing, souls being offered up on love's demanding altar). But the amount of tolerable rehashing reaches its apex halfway through this short album of tired epiphanies.

The great thing about those old soul singers, and their modern-day counterparts, is that they took age old subject matter and reinvented it for their current audience. Sought after love never sounded more urgent than when Mr. Redding squealed for it, melancholy never so poignant until Roberta Flack plaintively illuminated it. So what 'truth' does Izibor bring to enlighten the masses already inundated by Alicia, Chrisette Michele, and Jazmine Sullivan? Not much.

- Candace L.