Reality Bites<\/em> soundtrack, the wistful tune \u2013 with a sweet melody and Loeb’s fetching voice \u2013 gave Loeb a #1 charting single before she had even inked a record deal.<\/p>\nI will admit I didn’t follow her career after that. But neither did I ever change the station when the song came on; had I listened to a lot of radio, I might have found the song overplayed. But as it was, I liked it, and still do.<\/p>\n
Lisa Loeb is still busy recording and releasing albums. While her tenth album (2011’s Lisa Loeb’s Silly Silly Sing-Along<\/em>) was made for kids, her most recent is most definitely aimed at an older market. No Fairy Tale<\/em> was initially released in 2013, but of late it’s been getting a renewed marketing push, with vinyl copies (with different cover art, more of which presently) sent to reviewers who respond with interest.<\/p>\nNo Fairy Tale<\/em> is quite good, though not in the way that \u201cStay\u201d was, or, I suspect (but cannot verify) in the way her kid-themed album was successful. The songs have, if you\u2019ll pardon the dated reference, a sort of Riot Grrl vibe to them. Loeb (on vocals, electric and acoustic guitars) is ably supported by her co-producer Chad Gilbert<\/strong> on guitar, with Colin Strahm<\/strong> on drums plus a handful of other musicians on various tracks.<\/p>\nIt’s worth noting, perhaps, that one of those other musicians is one Brad Wood<\/strong>, who also mixed No Fairy Tale<\/em>. Wood is best known as a producer himself, and his best known production is Liz Phair<\/strong>‘s Exile in Guyville<\/em>. He’s also worked the boards for Veruca Salt<\/strong> and The Bangles<\/strong>. So it’s safe to say he knows how to help female rockers get the sound they want.<\/p>\nNone of which is intended to take away from Loeb’s talents. About half of the twelve tunes were written by Loeb herself, and most of the remainder are co-writes. The two songs she didn’t pen herself were composed by Tegan and Sara<\/strong> (Quin<\/strong>), credible female indie rockers themselves.<\/p>\nBut it’s still Loeb’s show all the way. No Fairy Tale<\/em> rocks far more often than it doesn’t. The opening title track kicks off with crunchy power chords worthy of The Who<\/strong>. The power trio of Loeb, Gilbert and Strahm charges through the song, and Loeb’s tightly arranged overdubbed vocals make \u201cNo Fairy Tale\u201d a statement of grown-up purpose in a modern world.<\/p>\nLoeb doesn’t kid around: she’s got a riffy rocker called \u201cThe ’90s\u201d that mentions videos, name checks MTV, and tells listeners, \u201cYou say you loved me then, but I don’t want to go back.\u201d Her wry, acerbic wit and refreshing self-awareness are on full display as she sings, \u201cSo alternative, just like everybody else in the mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when she runs through a more plaintive, contemplative number like \u201cWeak Day,\u201d Loeb delivers it in the manner of a rocker who’s dialing it down, rather than a folkie who finally gets to play with fewer of those nasty electric guitars. \u201cWalls\u201d is another appealing rocker with a soaring melody. For \u201cA Hot Minute,\u201d Loeb spits out the lyrics at top speed, right in line with the song’s urgent tone. She teases with the lyric, \u201cI\u201dm not asking for forever \/ I’m just asking for tonight,\u201d but the remaining lyrics suggest that she knows the object of the song feels pretty much the same way, at best. In its own way, \u201cA Hot Minute\u201d (one of the Tegan and Sara tunes) is more forthright than anything on the supposedly nakedly confessional Exile in Guyville<\/em>.<\/p>\nThe shifting tempos of the folk-rocker \u201cSick, Sick, Sick\u201d show that Loeb’s got a lot going on musically, but she couches it all in winning, tuneful and memorable songcraft.<\/p>\n
Side Two kicks in with \u201cMatches,\u201d another chugging rocker that Cheap Trick<\/strong> wouldn’t be embarrassed to include on one of their albums. \u201cMarried\u201d is a cautionary message to a friend (\u201cHe’s married \/ you don’t know what you’re doing\u201d). \u201cSwept Away\u201d is a midetempo rocker with another strong melody, made even better by the overdubbed vocals and multiple-guitar leads that evoke not the 90s but the 70s.<\/p>\n\u201cHe Loved You So Much\u201d is a sort of rock answer to the sort of song Loeb did nearly two decades ago with \u201cStay.\u201d And on \u201c\u201dAmi, I’m Sorry,\u201d Loeb does (briefly) return to her folkie singer-songwriter roots, with a song of heartbreak. Gilbert and Wood are on hand, but their contributions are nearly inaudible, and \u2013 it seems \u2013 not really needed. The album wraps with \u201cThe Worst,\u201d a sort of campfire pop tune that offers words of encouragement (\u201cDon’t worry; the worst is there to comfort you\u201d). A lovely end to a lovely record.<\/p>\n
The special repackaging of No Fairy Tale<\/em> features a cartoon image of Loeb, who in actual photos looks a bit like a bespectacled cross between Jennifer Garner<\/strong> and Rachael Ray<\/strong>. And each of these special LP versions is personalized with Loeb’s autograph and brief message. Hey, if it’s a shameless marketing ploy, it’s done for a good reason: it got me to listen to a wonderful album by an artist whose name I knew, but whose catalog I did not. Fair enough. Lisa Loeb’s No Fairy Tale<\/em> is highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last weekend I was wandering about in an antique\/ephemera mall that also housed a coffeehouse (this is Asheville; you routinely find such things here). There was an acoustic guitar singer-songwriter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[1324],"class_list":["post-5560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-lisa-loeb","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5560"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21025,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5560\/revisions\/21025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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