soul

Happy hearts have tin ears. Good thing love doesn't last forever. Last time we heard from neo-soul sweetheart Vivian Green, she was going through the three-stage drama of A Love Story: no love, bad love, good love. Two and a half years and a baby later, Vivian (Sony Urban/Columbia) jettisons the gooey goodness and gets back into the game. Early on, Green gives notice to her son's father with "Mad" and "Frustrated"; by "Selfish," she's moved on, but not entirely over him. Things don't really get interesting, though, until producer James Poyser steps in to hold the center together. Green gets slinky on the no-strings-attached fooling around of "I Like It (But I Don't Need It)," then goes deeper on "Perfect Decision," with sexy second-guessing that turns a fling with a friend into something more. (Here's where those strings come in, arranged by Larry Gold, of course.) If Vivian ends in too much sap, well, every love story has an ending, and it's only a matter of time before Green turns this one into song.

Mon., Dec. 26, 9 p.m., $25, The TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011, www.thetla.com.