Vivian Green

What's best about Ms. Green is that -- lustrous pipes aside -- she's not much of anything: no neosoul visionary on a mission to save the music, no pop chanteuse gyrating in a thong, no humorless prig hoping to get her shout-outs to Guantanamo onto KPRS. No, Green is more like that bright but quiet student in an honors English class, talented at saying things but not so good at finding the things worth saying. Which is fine in this case. Vivian, her second disc, is packed with killer singing and rote lyrics against muddled but pleasurable grooves. You can just tell that, despite major label backing, someone's letting this talent grow. She's trying to find some jazz-blunted place between Jill Scott and Mary J. Blige, and even though she's not as distinctive as those characters, her voice -- an instrument suited for the most laid-back of soul but at its best when forced to hustle -- makes her a contender. She might be the real deal a couple of records from now, and we're happy to wait. Genius flares out too quickly these days.