For Lisa Loeb, her hit song “Stay” has been both a blessing and
a curse. Yes, Loeb became the first unsigned artist to top the
Billboard singles charts (thanks to its inclusion on the
Reality Bites soundtrack), but ever since, it’s felt like
Loeb has been either trying to repeat that success or has been
chasing after it.
Cake And Pie, the third full-length effort from Loeb (and
her first in about five years) suggests that Loeb is finally
beginning to feel comfortable with her role as a singer-songwriter
without the need to repeat “Stay”. Yet she comes off sounding a bit
rusty after all this time.
For the most part, the “frightened little girl” vocal style that
drove “Stay” and Loeb’s subsequent hit “Do You Sleep?” seems to be
put on the shelf, rearing its head only when things get incredibly
bogged down in their own pretentiousness. Instead, we’re treated to
the sound of a wonam who has grown in many ways over the past few
years – though, as one can hear in the should-be single “We Could
Still Belong Together,” not much has changed on the romantic front.
This particular song does continue a pattern which Loeb started
with “I Do” off her last album
Firecracker, in that she moves out of the pop-rock sound and
dares to put some musical oomph behind her. It works well.
Likewise, the XTC-like guitar line on “You Don’t Know Me” is sheer
brilliance; too bad the weak chorus sinks this one.
Loeb also tries to call attention to anorexia in the album’s
closer “She’s Falling Apart”. It’s interesting in that she’s able
to get the message across without clubbing the listener over the
head with preachy messages – that said, I do wish this one had
offered some ray of hope (maybe in the form of suggesting there is
help) rather than simply painting the bleak picture of how this
disease affects those who love the person suffering from it. Still,
Loeb’s heart was in the right place.
For all the strengths of
Cake And Pie, there’s far too many weak moments that drag
this disc down. “Drops Me Down” is far too sleepy of a song, losing
the listener almost from the moment it starts. Likewise, “Kick
Start” needs a kick, all right – though I could argue for one in
the songwriting, one in the energy level, and one in the incredibly
bland lyrics. “Bring Me Up” is a track which I’m not certain just
what Loeb was trying to do with it, but it lacks any real
catchiness, while “Everyday” is a track which needs to grow on the
listener (though I’ll still argue the repeating of the song’s title
in the chorus is annoying).
All of this said,
Cake And Pie does turn out to be Loeb’s best album to date –
having listened to
Tails and
Firecracker before writing this review, I know. But for all
the promise that this disc holds in its outstanding tracks, there’s
enough to show that Loeb still hasn’t reached the upper echelon of
singer-songwriters yet.
