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Reviews: Lindsay Smith ~ Were You Prom Queen?
Posted on Saturday, April 03, 2004 @ 12:14:14 PST
Topic: Reviews
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Artist: Lindsay Smith
CD: Were You Prom Queen?
Home: Atlanta, Georgia
Style: Folk/Rock
Quote: "Smith is a quirky, smart, and sentimental soul with a humorously blunt way of putting things."
By Jennifer Layton
I was fortunate enough to review Lindsay Smith’s previous CD, Tales From the Fruitbat Vat, and even more fortunate to see her do an opening gig at the Six String Cafe in my hometown. Smith is a quirky, smart, and sentimental soul with a humorously blunt way of putting things, and I’m glad to see she’s even more of the same on her latest, Were You Prom Queen?
She offers a CD packed with thirteen songs and a very funny hidden track in which two of her friends record the ultimate in shameless self-promotion. That’s the pattern this CD takes: she’s straightforward for a song or two and then breaks away with something musically wild and lyrically funny. The CD starts with the honest “Basically Good” and then jumps right into the Dr. Seuss-inspired “One Fish Two Fish.” Over the jumpy, short-attention-span music, Smith sings:
I met a man named Sam I Am
He drove a candy pink Trans-Am
He liked to drink ‘til 5am
I do not like this man named Sam ...
Other breakout moments include the Courtney Love-style drunken rant called “I Don’t Like Drinking,” as well as the playful “Mr. McGoo.” The latter stands out for two reasons. One, it’s a musically playful song that actually deals with the serious lyrical subject of going through life with blinders on. Two, you know when you put a CD in your computer, and your software scans it and lists the song titles on the screen? Well, on this track, I was startled to see the typo “Mr. McGod” as the title of this song. At least I think it was a typo. When you really think about it, especially if you’re up late and as tired as I am, the “McGod” thing makes sense because the subject of the song is the god of his own little world, losing his control over his surroundings when he tries to step outside. So maybe she purposely typed it that way. At least she’ll probably claim she did after she reads this review.
Getting back to said review, Smith’s voice goes from sardonic to sweet on the more serious songs. “New England,” a peaceful, nostalgic ballad with a wonderful mandolin accompaniment, is a good example. She sounds like an angel on the high notes. What’s interesting is that she’ll allow herself to be nostalgic, funny, and angry, but never completely and openly romantic. The love song lullaby “Are You Sleeping,” is intimate and blissful, but Smith can’t resist ending with an unsettling insight: “I’m so looking forward to watching you sleep. I love you best when I know that you can’t see.”
She may have trouble with romance, but not with genuine family love. The final track, “For Lee,” is a touching, violin-accompanied song that made me think of my own little sister. It’s the perfect song to end the CD. No emotional barriers, no loud temper, no frenzied chords. Just lovely minor notes and lyrics such as:
... learn what I can’t understand at all
And then teach it to me
in the language we invented when we were small ...
I love this song, and I hear a strong progression between Smith’s previous CD and this one. She is definitely growing as an artist. Now if she could just meet a nice young man and settle down ...
Then again, I don’t want to find out what inspired the song “Runaway Bride.” Forget I even mentioned it.
http://www.lindsay-smith.com
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