After five years of anxious waiting, Lisa Loeb fans have been presented with a delicious treat of Cake And Pie, Loeb's third disc since her breakthrough generation X hit \Stay,"" off the Reality Bites Soundtrack. Loeb stayed below the radio radar after having another top 20 hit with ""I Do"" in 1997, popping up here and there on the occasional soundtrack.
Loeb never strays too far from her past endeavors in songwriting with many a confection about unrequited love and relationship woes. On the first track, ""The Way It Really Is,"" she perfectly captures the denial that everyone endures when they want a relationship to work against all odds.
As a self-proclaimed rock fan, Loeb has tried to infuse her tracks with such childhood musical influences as Queen and David Bowie. Boyfriend Dweezil Zappa also adds a new electric guitar dimension to Loeb's typically gentle and sweet singing style. The last three tracks also show a mature direction in melancholy for Loeb.
The most successful mix of vintage Loeb sound mixed with the new guitar edge is on ""You Don't Know Me,"" an ample candidate for radio airplay. The song has just the right whimsical touch with whistling inserted much the same way Queen used bells on ""Bicycle.""
Loeb keeps the listener on the yo-yo of love and rejection throughout the album, alternating the pace just enough to keep us from being overly saturated with sweetness. She also pays tribute to her love of food with the title, emphasizing that anyone can eat cake AND pie!
This album is a satisfying delicacy for Loeb fans and will have them singing along in no time. Loeb stays true to her songwriting roots and is a breath of fresh air amidst the unending cycle of regenerated pop acts obliterating the music scene today.
