Neo-Soul Singer Chooses Grooves Over Grind

It’s fine if she’s opinionated.... It’s OK if she has kids (hey, things happen).... It doesn’t even matter that she won’t always look as good as she does now....

That’s the way it works with women in Musiq’s world, a place where a suitor can’t wait to meet his girl’s parents, and where a man complains about a woman’s refusal to make a commitment.

You can see why someone who treats a woman as a whole, complicated person would register with an audience weary of pop’s superficial and demeaning portrayals of the gender. That might be one big reason that Musiq’s new album, “Juslisen,” entered the national sales chart at No. 1 last week.

Not that the singer-songwriter is selling sensitivity in a plain-wrap package. Musiq (born Talib Johnson) is part of the Philadelphia branch of the neo-soul renaissance (a delegation that also includes Jill Scott and Bilal), and in the first of his two shows Sunday at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Musiq emphasized grit and grooves over the sexual politics.

The capacity audience didn’t seem to mind--dancing, clapping, singing along and waving their arms as Musiq and his 10-member band mounted an aggressive attack, shifting the musical scenery from house party to church.

Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder are the primary touchstones of the style, and the sound Sunday was a catchy if conservative homage to the big beats, tart chording and liquid textures of that era.

But Musiq could have kept the music on high heat and still served his themes better. Two of the better new songs he played would have been perfect launching pads for some expansive testifying, especially now that he has injected a heavy dose of Al Green gospel into his musical palette: “Halfcrazy,” a perceptive anatomy of a friendship that sours when it crosses the line into romance, and “Caught Up,” about a girl who was once too young but now isn’t.

It’s hard to imagine the Rev. Green, for one, resisting the opportunity to expound, but Musiq never delved, using his spoken comments mainly to celebrate his popularity and express his gratitude to his audience.

Musiq (who dropped the surname Soulchild along the way) has been moving toward stardom, but with the sudden impact of “Juslisen,” he’s challenging to the big boys, i.e., D’Angelo and Maxwell. If he wants to leave more of an impression in that company, he’ll need to fire up the presentation.

His singing, mostly in a grainy middle range, is straightforward and free of excessive ornamentation, fitting the let’s-be-real nature of his songs. But it also tends to get lost in the arrangements. Despite the hipster’s sunglasses and the suggestion of self-mythologizing in his name, Musiq’s image on stage is that of a staunch, stand-up guy, and his performance lacked the sexual electricity and sheer charisma his rivals can deploy.

Second-billed Cee-Lo, whose solo debut, “Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections,” is one of the most acclaimed rap albums so far this year, looked like a mini-Shaq as he rapped and sang his way through a mix of rock, country, swampy hip-hop and heavy funk. Mock-stern and unfailingly playful, the rotund member of Atlanta’s Goodie Mob even referenced Boy George and Frankie Goes to Hollywood during his infectiously rambunctious set.

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Musiq, with Cee-Lo, plays tonight at the House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, 8 p.m. $25. (714) 778-2583.