Having attended several of Jann Arden’s Vancouver concerts in the past few years, I can personally attest to the love and admiration that Arden’s Western-Canadian audience has for one of this country’s top pure vocal talents. Indeed, it has always been a mystery to me (and to a lot of other Canadians) why Arden’s talents tend to be a secret to all of those but for a few pockets of Canada where her fan-base is unflinchingly loyal.

As with many long-standing popular artists, Arden’s appeal still derives from her best-known and –loved hits, including “Insensitive,” “Good Mother,” and “Could I Be Your Girl?” The last few albums have been decidedly short on hit singles, including the latest, 2003’s “Love is the Only Soldier.” And it is the lack of a handful of individual tracks to carry the album that will prove to be the latest release’s undoing, relegating it to the purchase lists of only those few thousand fans who religiously attend her yearly shows.

This is not to say that “Love is the Only Soldier” is a poor album, but it simply does not live up to Arden’s earlier standards. The title track, “If You Loved Me,” is the brightest track on the disc, and the one that will remain in the consciousness. The rest simply slips away without a trace.

Jann Arden currently finds herself at yet another career crossroads: with her loyal fans in attendance, she can continue to serve them the old hits for some time to come. Or she can somehow finally break out and find a larger audience. If she chooses the latter path, she will have to come up with some entirely new material than that which is found on “Love is the Only Soldier.”