Yah, the lyrics are cliche. But the music is far from boring imo. I'd rather listen to her play guitar than listen to most of her contemporaries sing. Probably cause I'm a guitar player. I wouldn't say she's a 'great' singer....but I'll say it in another way....I'd rather listen to her instrumentals than the other people she's compared to in this thread.

I don't know her entire catalogue, but my impression is that the instrumentation is more traditional than someone like Badu's records.....but also just plain better. She got a cool rhythmic, soul style on guitar and that's the thing that makes her stand out to me. I'd like to hear her do like an unplugged album...something with sparse arrangements and some great session players backing her up.

But I hear you that her concepts/lyrics might be considered a little bland. It's just that I'm equally unimpressed with those of Badu or Jonalle....and especially Jill. I say 'especially' on the sole basis of that video/song Scott did for 'Hate on Me'. Haven't seen something from Arie THAT BAD. I WILL say that J Monae puts on a hell of a live show....in fact, I thought it was shockingly good. Worlds better than the 2 Erykah shows I saw in terms of entertainment and vibe. If I wanna check out an act on the basis of concepts/lyrics/presentation...I'm not really checking for any of the mentioned artists.

So even though Badu and Monae might be more clever and artistic in their presentation. For pure musical enjoyment...I'm still taking India Arie.