Erykah Badu's popularity mushroomed last winter as two hit singles begat a multi-platinum album, Baduizm. Her live shows also galvanized fans by artfully invoking the trappings of the blues. She lights candles and uses a conversational approach on stage, evoking caf culture and jazz singers of old. With her afro-centric outfits and hip-hop references, Badu personifies boho feminine chic.

Badu's critics knocked her thin, metallic voice, but conceded that her sassy romanticism made for convivial live shows. She toured relentlessly, appearing wherever promoters wanted a contemporary soul vibe. From soap operas to teen TV shows to national tours, there she stood, head-wrapped and unblinking, baring her neo-soul.

Erykah Badu Live captures the best moments of a career launched only a year ago. It features several cuts from Baduizm, including extended versions of the hits ""On and On"" and ""Next Lifetime,"" and a handful of covers. The only new tune here, ""Tyrone,"" was created during an improvisational performance in London. A story about a boyfriend's dismissal, ""Tyrone"" suggests an artist with a masterful feel for her audience: Badu and the crowd partake in a roaring call and response throughout ""Tyrone,"" and on one chorus, the audience sings along word for word, adding in some appreciative hoots and hollers along the way.

Live could have been subtitled ""A Step-By-Step Guide to Pleasing Sophisticated R&B Audiences."" Badu and her funk band quote Miles Davis (""Rimshot Intro""), cover '70s soul giants Roy Ayers (""Searching"") and Chaka Kahn (""Stay""), and dabble in early-'80s post-disco with the Mary Jane Girls' classic ""All Night."" These crowd-pleasers are intended to make you want to dance, but Badu's precise timing and detached vocals tickle and chill rather than elicit that warm and organic, disco-esque elan needed to make you want to get up and swing to this kind of stuff. See, Badu's singing is not embraceable or inspirational. Her tone is like a trumpet's: sometimes shrill, often pretty. Rarely warm.

While Badu's female fans rally around the assertive way she takes stands against her boyfriends, her politics are not completely beyond reproach. On ""Tyrone,"" she chides a boyfriend largely because he ""never buys [her] shit."" She goes on to list the various ways he fails to pull his financial weight in their relationship. A lover so fixated on money is no more p.c. than the rapping femme fatales who are criticized for bartering sex for money.

Erykah Badu's style, in combination with her bold visual imagery, is powerful. Erykah Badu Live showcases a pop diva capable of deploying a variety of time-worn techniques to please her fans and capture the spirit of modern soul.