Chicago singer Terisa Griffin approached her sophomore album My Naked Soul like it was a major label recording, even though she’s actually independently released it on her on My Naked Soul Productions. It is a beautifully packaged product, and the outer shell is surpassed by Griffin’s exquisite production, which is lush and organic, hitting all the right spots throughout this adult soul offering. Best of all, though, is Griffin’s voice, a powerful, sensuous instrument that can even make mediocre material extremely listenable. Unfortunately, while My Naked Soul includes a couple of very enjoyable cuts (the single “Sunshine” and the infectious, uptempo “Cigarette In the Rain”), most of the material is underdeveloped, often having a reasonably attractive hook but lacking the overall cohesion to carry it for four minutes.
Griffin’s wonderful vocal work and solid production keep the disc listenable and moderately pleasing throughout, but you can’t help but feel that with more outside help on the compositions and a few less meaningless spoken interludes My Naked Soul could have been truly memorable. Mildly recommended.
By Chris Rizik
