Listen to Jill Scott’s new album, The Light Of The Sun, via NPR Music

You can listen to the album in its entirety here. From NPR Music:

Scott has come a long way since she was working as The Roots‘ hook girl. (Can you imagine a time when Scott rode the bus on the Things Fall Apart tour just to come out and sing the chorus she’d written for Erykah Badu to sing in “You Got Me”? And people were kind of bummed when she hit the stage — until they heard her sing, of course?) Scott began in Philadelphia as a spoken-word artist, and on The Light of the Sun, she incorporates that work into her songs cleverly. When she finds an opening to leaven her singing with speech, she goes for it, but within reason and to an end.

That end might be an offering to women when they’re feeling bruised or disappointed. Scott has publicly taken a few punches herself in recent years — a divorce, followed by a short relationship which left her a single parent. “God, please hear my call / I am afraid for me,” she sings in “Hear My Call.” “Love has burned me raw / I need your healing.” In that song, Scott is backed by swelling strings and tender piano; she says “please” over and over, with a different inflection every time. But in spite of the pleading, there isn’t anything ragged in her voice.