Album: Jill Scott

Beautifully Human, HIDDEN BEACH/SONY

The Philadelphia soul diva Jill Scott's third album is an accomplished, if rather predictable, continuation of the themeson her 2000 debut Who is Jill Scott?. The main difference is that she's now in an apparently blissful marriage, reflected in a slight increase in love songs such as "Whatever" and "I'm Not Afraid". But there's also a strong socio-political presence on Beautifully Human, in "Rasool" - an account of the first street death she saw, that of a 15-year-old crack dealer - and more positively in "Family Reunion", with itsrecollections of a family barbecue, full of down-home gossip about the lovable foibles of ol' Uncle Jerome and Aunt Juicy. Scott celebrates her emancipation in songs such as the forthcoming single "Golden", which regards freedom almost as a form of godhead enabling her to continue "living my life like it's golden". But she's found a new sense of sexual equality, reflected in "The Fact Is (I Need You)" and "Bedda at Home": in the former, she applauds her hard-w

The Philadelphia soul diva Jill Scott's third album is an accomplished, if rather predictable, continuation of the themeson her 2000 debut Who is Jill Scott?. The main difference is that she's now in an apparently blissful marriage, reflected in a slight increase in love songs such as "Whatever" and "I'm Not Afraid". But there's also a strong socio-political presence on Beautifully Human, in "Rasool" - an account of the first street death she saw, that of a 15-year-old crack dealer - and more positively in "Family Reunion", with itsrecollections of a family barbecue, full of down-home gossip about the lovable foibles of ol' Uncle Jerome and Aunt Juicy. Scott celebrates her emancipation in songs such as the forthcoming single "Golden", which regards freedom almost as a form of godhead enabling her to continue "living my life like it's golden". But she's found a new sense of sexual equality, reflected in "The Fact Is (I Need You)" and "Bedda at Home": in the former, she applauds her hard-won independence but acknowledges she still needs her man's love; while the latter finds her admiring a male dancer, but maintaining she has something better at home, a lover whose "intellect and utter respect/ Makes me wanna grow and be my best".