For Lisa Loeb, her hit song “Stay” has been both a blessing and
\na curse. Yes, Loeb became the first unsigned artist to top the
\nBillboard<\/i> singles charts (thanks to its inclusion on the
\nReality Bites<\/i> soundtrack), but ever since, it’s felt like
\nLoeb has been either trying to repeat that success or has been
\nchasing after it.<\/p>\n
\nCake And Pie<\/i>, the third full-length effort from Loeb (and
\nher first in about five years) suggests that Loeb is finally
\nbeginning to feel comfortable with her role as a singer-songwriter
\nwithout the need to repeat “Stay”. Yet she comes off sounding a bit
\nrusty after all this time.<\/p>\n
For the most part, the “frightened little girl” vocal style that
\ndrove “Stay” and Loeb’s subsequent hit “Do You Sleep?” seems to be
\nput on the shelf, rearing its head only when things get incredibly
\nbogged down in their own pretentiousness. Instead, we’re treated to
\nthe sound of a wonam who has grown in many ways over the past few
\nyears – though, as one can hear in the should-be single “We Could
\nStill Belong Together,” not much has changed on the romantic front.
\nThis particular song does continue a pattern which Loeb started
\nwith “I Do” off her last album
\nFirecracker<\/i>, in that she moves out of the pop-rock sound and
\ndares to put some musical oomph behind her. It works well.
\nLikewise, the XTC-like guitar line on “You Don’t Know Me” is sheer
\nbrilliance; too bad the weak chorus sinks this one.<\/p>\n
Loeb also tries to call attention to anorexia in the album’s
\ncloser “She’s Falling Apart”. It’s interesting in that she’s able
\nto get the message across without clubbing the listener over the
\nhead with preachy messages – that said, I do wish this one had
\noffered some ray of hope (maybe in the form of suggesting there is
\nhelp) rather than simply painting the bleak picture of how this
\ndisease affects those who love the person suffering from it. Still,
\nLoeb’s heart was in the right place.<\/p>\n
For all the strengths of
\nCake And Pie<\/i>, there’s far too many weak moments that drag
\nthis disc down. “Drops Me Down” is far too sleepy of a song, losing
\nthe listener almost from the moment it starts. Likewise, “Kick
\nStart” needs a kick, all right – though I could argue for one in
\nthe songwriting, one in the energy level, and one in the incredibly
\nbland lyrics. “Bring Me Up” is a track which I’m not certain just
\nwhat Loeb was trying to do with it, but it lacks any real
\ncatchiness, while “Everyday” is a track which needs to grow on the
\nlistener (though I’ll still argue the repeating of the song’s title
\nin the chorus is annoying).<\/p>\n
All of this said,
\nCake And Pie<\/i> does turn out to be Loeb’s best album to date –
\nhaving listened to
\nTails<\/i> and
\nFirecracker<\/i> before writing this review, I know. But for all
\nthe promise that this disc holds in its outstanding tracks, there’s
\nenough to show that Loeb still hasn’t reached the upper echelon of
\nsinger-songwriters yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6711],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37330","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lisa-loeb","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37330"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}