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Title: This Is Who I Am
Artist: Heather Headley
Audio CD (October 8, 2002) 
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: R&B
Format: Free Lossless Audio Codec


Track Listing:

01. He Is
02. Nature of a Man
03. Fallin' for You
04. I Wish I Wasn't
05. Fulltime
06. Like Ya Use To
07. Always Been Your Girl
08. Sunday
09. Four Words from a Heartbreak
10. Sista Girl
11. Why Should I Cry
12. If It Wasn't for Your Love


Amazon Review:
You don't expect a Broadway star to be slow burning and funky (Ben Vereen notwithstanding), but Heather Headley is both. Best known for her stage roles in The Lion King and Aida -- the latter won her a Tony -- the Trinidad native is used to arch performance. Yet her debut album focuses on smooth, lean R&B grooves and Headley's honeyed voice. Heartbreak is Headley's ace. "I Wish I Wasn't" is a tortured missive dispatched from an empty home. "Always Been Your Girl" -- the set's hands-down centerpiece -- finds Headley pleading with a longtime friend to consider her in a different light. It's a staggeringly powerful song -- the kind you can imagine Headley belting out beneath a stark spotlight -- made all the more stunning by the fact that the whole collection isn't tied to that one emotion. Also here are the breezy, Mars-Venus meditation "Nature of a Man" and the near-tribal thump of "Like Ya Used To." There are producers and guests aplenty, but Headley is, as always, the star of the show.

Allmusic Review:
Though she didn't come out of the R&B tradition, Heather Headley has plenty of soul on her debut, This Is Who I Am. Headley, a singer whose vocal strength isn't mere compensation for a lack of interpretive skills or lame songwriting, possesses a range that's surprising and welcome; she slips on dramatic personas continually here, quite ironic considering the title. The arrangements aren't exactly hooky, but the cast of producers -- including Dallas Austin, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and D'Influence, use everything in their power -- from a Hammond B-3 to synthesizers -- to flesh out these songs. Occasionally, the songs don't reflect their age very well, as on the regrets of a stay-at-home girlfriend ("I Wish I Wasn't") or an increasingly angry housewife who's been neglected ("Like Ya Used To"). The opener, "He Is" (by songwriter/producer Joshua Nile), is very good though -- an intriguing angle on female thoughts about the male side of love (or, just possibly, a look at the aspects of God). Headley sounds excellent throughout, her voice pure as crystal on the ballads, occasionally outré in similar fashion to Mariah Carey, but gritty and soulful when she's sorting out the responsibilities of a relationship in "Fulltime."