As much as I truly adore artists that stretch their creativity and intentionally try not to have their entire career reduced to a 5 second soundbite, there are some that you just hate seeing ignored due to their inability to be classified. The mainstream (and even, to some extent, the "underground") is missing out on some spectacularly talented artists thanks to the lack of an "acceptable niche" that they have, which is only a disservice to listeners.
I only found Alice Smith through my many random nights of clicking around Wikipedia, amazon.com, and various music blogs and I am truly thankful to have found the former Fordham student. Her mixture of rock, r&b, jazz, and blues on 2006's For Lovers, Dreamers, & Me literally made me recoil in surprise as to how powerful it truly was. Desert Song is, to put it mildly, a masterpiece. From the moment Smith opens her mouth and lets out her first roar (you have to hear it to believe it; it's a truly complex, affecting voice), you know she's a special talent. This leans toward the blues side of her musical identity, as it is packed with meaty percussion and dramatic horns, all of which accentuate her muscular, textured instrument. The song itself is a "big" song in that everything is set on 11, but it never falls over itself or gets in its own way. With production and arrangement that allow the song to really shine, it's spectacular. Secrets and Do I both pull back a little and it's the best thing for the album. The more sides you see of Alice Smith, the more you respect her as an artist. The prior is a little more reserved; a simple, piano-led ballad that recalls Lauryn Hill, it's almost as if she's scared to fully sing about the vulnerabilities and insecurities the song covers. Both it and Desert are raw but in different ways. Secrets is raw in a more painful way, in that the quieter she speaks over the jazz-inflected piano and sturdy percussion, the more closely you true to listen. The latter is a little more ambient in terms of production (it's like Sade meets Aya), but Smith gets to sing out a little more. It's not as punch-you-in-the-gut immediate as Desert but her performance is still heartbreaking and as passionate. It's interesting to hear Smith on a more romantic track (she gives me hints of Goapele, which is a total compliment and a testament to her chameleonic ability to truly inhabit a song), but she fails to disappoint.
I have a hard time fully embracing Fake is the New Real, despite its jazz-y tones and melody that has a whole lot of stank on it. It's a cultural commentary about where we are these days (pornography, television, rock'n roll) and for some reason, I just have a hard time being truly gung ho about this type of song. Its smoky verses are raspy and sound like they're performed by someone 20 years her senior, while the reggae-ish bassline actually works better than expected, but it's not that conducive to repeat listens. I actually agree with a lot of what she says, but when you come home from a hard day or if you want to be in a better mood, you don't want to hear about setting televisions on fire and getting turned on. Some people could be a little intimidated by how serious the record sounds, but something like Woodstock lightens things up a little bit. Sounding like something Little Jackie would record (that type of feminine yet urban pop), it's a little off kilter and features perhaps the catchiest hook on the record. She doesn't really talk about a whole lot, but I think that's kind of the point; if how heavy hitting the record is wears you out, this is the song to put on and just relax. While the melody is very fluid and the atmosphere relaxed, the message is pretty timely for the current times, i.e. stuff is bad, make sure to let go of the anxiety sometimes. Gary's Song is a nice little funky uptempo that struts, preens, and poses its way to superiority, though there are a few twists and turns throughout the track. The tempo differential between the chorus and verses is a nice curveball (the hook is dreamy and almost soft, leaning more acoustic, while the song evolves toward a pretty gutwrenching piano ballad), while hearing her take command of an uber confident track is pretty wonderful. I would love for her to expand on the sound of the verses for her second album and really attack a song for 4 minutes, though hearing her try different things here is a pleasure in and of itself.
Though her commercial success has been limited, Alice Smith is still plugging away, doing shows in small venues and trying to drum up more interest. I'm not sure if a second album is in the cards, but we should be so lucky as to hear that behemoth voice unleashed on another dozen or so tracks. For Lovers, Dreamers, & Me, however, is a musically intelligent, ferocious, and thoughtful collection of songs that will satiate anyone's thirst for a multi-faceted performer who knows who she is. As long as Smith makes sure her material is up to par, she will continue to be one of the most interesting artists that nobody's talking about.
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