Cake & Pie

It could be argued that people forgive singers like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion their syrupy song choices because their voices are so magnificent. Almost exactly the opposite is true of coffeehouse cutie Lisa Loeb. While her voice is pleasant enough, it lacks the range, vibrato, and immediacy to rank as a compelling instrument. But set against Loeb's fizzy folk-pop, it becomes an ideal vehicle for her conversational lyrics. That's especially true on Cake and Pie, which bears the confessional stamp of a songwriter who's been around the block enough times to know that life comes stacked with some pretty heinous surprises. Hence subject matter ranging from relationships in decay ("Kick Start") to teenage anorexia ("She's Falling Apart"). There's brightness, too, in tracks like the relatively slamming "We Could Still Belong Together"--originally heard in the film Legally Blonde--and the cheeky, finger-wagging "You Don't Know Me." While Randy Scruggs, Dweezil Zappa, and superstar producer Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) appear as co-songwriters, Cake and Pie owes its chief debt to Loeb and her willingness to throw open the diary, real or imagined, and start dishing. --Kim Hughes