Lisa Loeb
Cake and Pie (A & M)
by Jamie Kiffel
Some relationships go bad. Others go funny. Others just go. Like the uncomfortable mixture of “okay” and “painful,” inertially hoping for improvemement but never quite managing – this is the focus of Cake and Pie, a collection of unsteady pop love (?) songs. Like relationships that are too comfortable to leave, offer no change, and thus freeze the participants at a certain phase in their lives, these songs are sweet and singable but always feel a touch left behind, as if they were penned by a younger artist who didn’t allow her style to mature (in fact, they were written several years ago).
(www.lisaloeb.com)