Arriving a little over six months after her starring role in the box-office smash
Wicked
,
Cynthia Erivo
's ambitious sophomore album,
I Forgive You
, clocks in at over an hour as she navigates not only forgiveness but things like motivation, appreciation, and relational imbalance. With a 20-track set list (counting interludes), and the involvement of nearly a dozen producers, its lush arrangements -- including strings, a variety of guitar tones, deep basslines, recurring choral vocals, and plenty of reverb -- its wide-ranging (impeccable) vocals, and its merger of alt-R&B, adult pop, and gospel,
feels a lot like a concept album, if one tied together loosely by strong emotions. A couple of the record's more memorable songs include the tender and empowering "I Choose Love," whose celestial sound is built up from piano, plucked guitar, and elaborate choral vocal effects, and the more down-to-earth "Replay," a sung half-rap that inventories her own faults and behaviors, including overthinking ("My mind is like a record set up on auto-replay"). Appearing like an apparition along the way is a highly edited and processed, one-minute a cappella take on
Marvin Gaye
's "I Want You." A deeply moving opus, it marked her solo Billboard 200 debut, reaching 165 while charting in the Top 50 of the R&B/hop-hop list. ~ Marcy Donelson