GaydarNation

It’s not every day you get a press release daring enough to compare a new singer to the likes of Billie Holiday, Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle, but then again it isn’t every day you get a CD in your mail box as unique and stunning as Alice Smith’s debut.

From the very first notes of kick off track ‘Dream’ you know you’re in for something special. As an R&B album, Smith fights every convention of the genre. She’s more Jill Scott than any of the booty poppin hoez you see on late night TV, and yet her songs would fit just as comfortably into that format. The difference is Smith brings something more to the table.

“Give me some new religion / Something that I can feel / Give me a new tomorrow / Bring it on and make it real”, she sings on the powerful ‘New Religion’. Lyrically, she shows purpose.

Vocally, I challenge any of today’s popular artists to sing with the strength and command Smith musters across her impressive four octave range. And musically, her introduction of piano, cello, horns, bass proves this is a woman who knows music backward, forward, upside down and back again.

From start to finish Smith keeps the pace moving and repeatedly sends the standards home. And in a class of company that includes Scott, Alicia Keys, India Arie (the list goes on), Smith may be the least well known, but damnit if I’m not inspired to say she’s the most well rounded of the bunch.

For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, by Alice Smith
Label: World's Fair
Released: 5 September 2006 (import)
ASIN: B000FUIV3I