★★★★★
A personal awakening, a professional epiphany and an emotional precipice: if you're lucky, you'll arrive at those milestones one at a time. But if you're like the rest of us, the seismic core shifts happen simultaneously and leave you reeling. If you're relating to that sentiment, nodding your head and arm-waving as if it's Praise and Worship time on Sunday morning, then open your music changer and ready your iPod for the testimony of Ledisi Young, because she is about to take you all the way...
- www.soultracks.com
2014-03-12
★★★★★
R&B; Stop sobbing over Oprah's disappearing act - Ledisi has got you covered. On her fifth studio album, the Grammy-nominated New Orleans-born, Oakland-bred R&B; singer dispenses words of encouragement and empowerment with every breath. The former "Beach Blanket Babylon" regular pushes her fans to "Raise Up" and "Shine," applauding their endeavors with a hearty "Bravo...
- www.sfgate.com
2011-07-04
★★★★★
Usually, writers loathe simple sayings and well-worn clichés, but when it comes to describing the evolution of Ledisi Anibade Young, "art imitating life" is only one that fits...
- www.soultracks.com
2011-06-20
★★★★★
Ledisi's latest release is an album whose modest rises and falls depend on the song and the producer, rarely on the singer. On every song Ledisi sings and sings and sings with an instrument that never fails to impress. Unfortunately, the songs and the rotating producers are not always in alignment with the artist's considerable gifts...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
There's almost always some difference or disjunction built into modern rock 'n' roll?the difference between the tone and nature of the words vs. the way they're performed. Commonplace lines are played as anthemic truths, surreal word soup is set to Beatlesque pop, intimate confession is treated as an offhanded trifle, and so on. That tension is largely absent in contemporary R&B, which seems to be defined by depth of feeling...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
New Orleans-born Ledisi's Turn Me Loose has a similar essence as Mary J. Blige's No More Drama. The difference lies in their approaches as each expresses growth in their music. No More Drama succeeds in celebrating brighter days for Blige, yet she can't do the main thing that makes growth possible?let go. It is as if Blige is trying to move forward, but she doesn't get too far because she keeps looking back...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2010-02-12
★★★★★
Ledisi has had a long, wildly varied career that has involved everything from performing in "Beach Blanket Babylon" five nights a week to singing alongside Stevie Wonder at a PBS television tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. It all came to a head following the release of 2007's "Lost and Found," her first for Verve, which earned the Oakland singer two Grammy Award nominations for best new artist and best R&B; album. Now Ledisi is primed for bigger things...
- www.sfgate.com
2009-11-06
★★★★★
With "Lost & Found," Ledisi Young's major-label debut, the Oakland vocalist makes a most auspicious bid to be discovered, embraced and adored by the rest of the world the way she has long been by Bay Area audiences. Ledisi infuses her neo-soul songs with some of the swing, sass and harmonic sophistication of modern jazz, much like Teena Marie and Anita Baker have in the past, but with contemporary twists...
- www.sfgate.com
2009-11-06