The sultry voice of Alice Smith has been separated from the masses for the last seven years. The DC-born singers' initial resonance began with the debut album For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me in 2006, to critical acclaim and a Grammy Nomination for "Dream" in the category "Best Urban/Alternative." Alas her musical journey took a while to continue, as life happened and she was blessed with a daughter. Now she's back and better than ever, with an album that shows the ins and outs of love and strength. Call it She, for it is about all women's hopes, dreams, and affinities.
She comes out on March 19 on Rainwater/Thirty Tigers, and
GBSTL is about to show you what it sounds like.
The sound of Alice Smith just overwhelms you. It's a very
interesting and soulful sound to say the least, made colorful with her sonorous
voice and dragging phonetics. That is the basis to what the instrumentation
centers around on She. The weight of her voice is accompanied by discussions on
the essence of love and friendship, loyalty, the first crush feeling, being a
fool for love, and more.
Take for example "Ocean," a declaration of love
starting off as a simple acoustic guitar diddy and turning into a funky throwback in the
refrain. "I haven't found a love much more than a bore/ And now our romance is a victory in love for sure," Alice sings while describing her lover to flow like the ocean. Or the piano-laden "Another Love" about letting go and
letting be: "If you don't like it / Be on your way/ You can't keep taking what I give/ What I give," she retorts to a lazy significant other.
Each song starts off from silence to a quick and noticeable
yet timely gradual build of instruments, a gradual build-up before she even
sings a note, all peaking with a full and sometimes unexpected sound on
the chorus. Alice has strategically placed harmonies, and you can hear the
ease of their flow in her song about falling in love called "Easy,"
where the tones are akin to the drawing of a wave with different amplitudes.
Heavy drums are a reoccurring theme as with the chorus to "Cabaret,"
and "Fool For You," a CeeLo remake, along with the creation of a full
sound on "With You," with bass drums envoking the sentimental emotions describing
having to be with that special person.
The album culminates with "She," an anthem for
women everywhere. "I'm ‘She’" she croons as if to state that she
represents all women in their struggles and triumphs. This release is one of
the latter. --GB
