Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	53/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Blender	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B[4]
The Guardian	[5]
NME	4/10[2]
PopMatters	6/10[6]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Spin	4/10[2]
USA Today	[7]
Vibe	[2]

Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 53, based on 14 reviews.[2] Some reviews are positive, like Billboard, for example, which gave the album a positive review and called it "An ambitious, aurally rich suite of storytelling songs."[8] Hartford Courant gave it a positive review and said, "Of all today's self-actualizing soul singers, India.Arie represents the purest version of the concept. How much you'll like her brand of R&B depends in part on whether the word "nurturing" gives you the warm fuzzies or makes your skin crawl."[9] On the other hand, Mojo gave it two stars out of five and said, "Lacking the wit and lyrical dexterity of a Jill Scott or the raw power of Angie Stone, the songs can feel airless and unengaged."[2] Q also gave it two stars out of five and said that Arie's "sauntering melodies struggle under the weight of their worthy load."[2]

In the United States, Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts with first-week sales of 161,000 copies, Arie's first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and second on the R&B chart.[10] The following week, it fell to number three on the Billboard 200 with 69,000 copies sold.[11] The album had sold 689,000 copies in the United States as of December 2008.[12]