The performance following Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa’s poetry reading at the University Performing Arts Center in early April was probably more improvisational than intended. One of the musicians couldn’t make it at the last minute.

The group was set to perform a few tracks off the recently released “The Mercy Suite” – co-written by Komunyakaa and performed by The Shapeshifter Ensemble.

The album is informed by Komunyakaa’s maturation in New Orleans and his own experiences as a Vietnam War veteran (see: his most famous poem “Facing It” and tracks four and nine).

Of the 10 compositions with vocals, co-writer Tomás Doncker sings lead on five of them. Doncker’s smooth tones resonate with a varnished, pitch-perfect – or Auto-Tune pitch-perfected – resin. On some songs it works, on others not so much: Doncker’s voice may be a little too unsullied and clean to sing about heavy material such as the atrocities of war.

Most of the songs are influenced by the gospel impulse, marked by rollicking organ and a confessional intensity that is sometimes surprising, though the album is more spiritual than religion-specific.

“Have Mercy, Mr. Percy” is the only instrumental track and serves as an upbeat interlude from the album’s more serious matters. The song is curiously followed by an acoustic reprise of an earlier track, “Rumors of War.”

The song’s reappearance could imply that “The Mercy Suite” ran out of ideas. The acoustic version’s vocal-centricism and simpler arrangement, however, make it an infinitely better song than the overproduced and clichéd original that helps open the album.

New York-based vocalist Morley has the strongest voice of the ensemble, and her blue-eyed soul runs appearing on two songs. Her voice is sonically closest to a less fragile, more self-assured Beth Gibbons. Morley can appropriately tone it down, too. Her spiritual slowly floats by in a dandelion breeze as she sings, “Let my voice ride the wind” in the closing track.

Instrumentally, Booker King and Meshell Ndegeocello’s electric bass parts steal the show. In contrast, the drumming is just adequate. Besides the omnipresent kick drum in most of the songs, the same drum effect could be replicated effectively on an old drum machine.

“The Mercy Suite” is a competent album best suited for nightcaps with $20 sauvignon blanc. The record’s biggest offense may just be its inoffensiveness – it digests with a little cheese, even a bit of lime zest for flavor, but mostly with a smooth, easy-listening, low-key quiet.

If the album were a color, it would be a pastel. If it were a painting, it would be achieved in broad strokes, engaging mostly unspecific themes like love, war and the circle of learning. If it were a party, it would be a dinner party of middle-aged liberals or maybe black conservative Christians. To wit, my grandparents love this album.

- Christopher Benton is a variety staff writer.