Artist: Alice Smith
Album: For Lovers, Dreamers & Me
Label: BBE Records
Tracks: 10
Review By: Jacob Gehman

Alice Smith appeared in my mailbox, along with the other cds I get sent to review. It was an awkward meeting as I flipped through the day's haul. Various genres winked at me, from country to hardcore. And then there was Alice. She was a caricature, lounging upon something soft-- a sofa? with her hands crossed and an expression on her face that makes her look at ease with her situation, yet perhaps vaguely bored at the same time. From the looks it could have been anything from elevator jazz to dance music to R&B.

When I put the album in the first seven seconds blew me away. From the first seven seconds I knew this was going to be an awesome, awesome album. Somehow my premonition turned out to be correct, even though the first seconds were not going to be repeated as such for the rest of the album. The first seven seconds is a piano just pounding a chord. It has that empty room sound to it, making it sound far away in my headphones and it gets a little bit louder with each pound. My first thought was, "Gosh, that sounds a lot like Steve Reich!"

Despite that being the last time on the album that Alice Smith made me think of the king of pulsating minimalism, the rest of the album did what it does with such grace, flair, and creativity that rather than the first seven seconds being a lying appetizer, it just eases you into the album then casts you off without further ado.

It is a thrilling blend of loungy jazz, urban that sounds neither hip nor dated, and a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Trying to attach a genre name to it doesn't really seem to do it justice and, unlike many genre-less albums, these songs flow and feel natural together. No disjointed, awkward genre switches from song to song. This album is a music lover's album, not a genre lover's album.

"For Lovers, Dreamers and Me" is Alice Smith's first album and naturally there are a few bumps in the road where parts of songs don't quite pan out. But even those sections are performed with such strutting confidence that they aren't noticeable until you get down to nitpicking. The most obvious stumble was titling track six "Fake Is The New Real." But the music on that track is very good so that flaw is only noticed if you're looking at the cd case.

If you love music and want to find a fresh, new voice check out Alice Smith. She has a bright future ahead of her.