::ALBUM REVIEW::

After burning up the Indianapolis press with her stage appearances in the off-Broadway woman-to-woman musical Menopause the Musical as the Professional Woman, Tiffanie Bridges takes to her gospel roots on her independently-released debut I’m Ready. The nine-track collection, produced by her talented husband Angelo Bridges, exposes her soulful riffs and unique vocal style that resemble the plush of Roberta Flack and the melisma challenges of Chaka Khan. And she also exposes her writing skill as she boldly takes on the task of penning seven of the album’s tracks. But the album for the most part rattles on like an incomplete demo and falls flat for its lack of ingenuity, the generic pulse of the keyboard-dominated orchestrations and mixing defaults.

Kicking off the set is the breezy danceable title track; perched with a light House mix, keyboard drum patches and fuzzy synth layers. It does have that radio sizzle, even on the Napoleon Williams-arranged vamp, but slantingly suffers for a few overdubb complaints. Still the song brings out a thump that compares to a Daniel Witherspoon/Vashawn Mitchell contemporary number. Other more ambitious standouts surround the cool Marlowe Cribbs’ “God Will Take Care Of His Own,” the jazzy struts of “God Knows” and the touching ballad “For a Little While.” Even “Fake Folks,” perched up with hip-hop swagger, is deemed interesting enough for repeats.

Not sure if a light and tight budget is the real backdrop of the album’s story but Angelo and Tiffanie Bridges handle most of the work on their own - from the songwriting to the production, from the background vocals to the arranging. And usually the lack of personnel can be felt from the first ten seconds of a song. Not to interpret I’m Ready as being uninspiring: it definitely has bright spots and enough zest and character from the gifted vocalist to hold an ear’s attention, but it’s appeal only works to Bridges’ potential. The album, for what it’s worth, should serve as a compass to an even greater and promising career in music. When measured up, I’m Ready is just too brief and generic to be taking serious.