Lisa Loeb
A Simple Trick To Happiness
Furious Rose
Listen Below
There’s a favored framing method that the general music press tends to take when assessing a new album from Lisa Loeb. Typically, this effort will almost always be judged against the ubiquity of her 1994 breakout hit “Stay (I Missed You).” While Loeb herself has never held any animus toward the ‘90s radio anthem that has lingered on long since the end of that decade, such critical myopia can unfortunately minimize Loeb’s larger legacy beyond her most ubiquitous single.
If one eschews willful nostalgia, the expansiveness of Loeb’s career quickly comes into view. She’s an active recording artist who has issued twelve studio albums—five of them lauded children’s recordings—between 1995 and 2017. She’s also an occasional television, film and voice actress, part-time author, successful businesswoman-philanthropist, wife and mother of two.
In short, Loeb is a veritable superwoman.
Against this myriad assemblage of professional and personal achievements, Loeb has just put forward another raft of excellent songcraft in A Simple Trick To Happiness. Released through her own Furious Rose imprint and operating as her first collection of original material since No Fairy Tale (2013), the album finds the singer, songwriter and musician in excellent form once again.
In a recent interview with Consequence of Sound, Loeb details her aim with A Simple Trick To Happiness, explaining, “My biggest goal is to write from where I am and still craft so that it’s not just a journal entry—it’s not anything close to a journal entry—but still very, very personal. And that’s my goal and I feel like that’s what I was able to do for this record, was to really write things from where I am now. And it still has elements—hopefully—of mystery in it, things that are abstract and poetic enough where they really feel like a song.”
For those familiar with Loeb’s cerebral, but emotive writing approach, her ability to interweave (and occasionally blur) real-life scenarios of her own or those observed/imagined has always been present. As such, A Simple Trick To Happiness finds Loeb at midlife—a woman who is slightly settled, but ever curious about the mores of love, relationships and the human condition overall. Whether she’s exploratory (“Skeleton”), anthemic (“Sing Out”) or engaging in a bout of romantic dark humor (“I Wanna Go First”), Loeb’s intimate erudition as a song scribe hasn’t dulled. In fact, her confidence with her own pen has seen her continue to broaden her co-writing circle to keep her sharp.
Although there’s a healthy cast of characters joining Loeb to write on the LP, she remains the focal point of all the gathered song pieces. Rich Jacques emerges as one of the stronger creative voices to task alongside Loeb; they also evenly divide production duties for this trim 11-track affair. Together, Loeb and Jacques draw up an appetizing sound canvas which positions Loeb’s hallmark rock stylings as the core of A Simple Trick To Happiness. Wisely, they leave enough room to build out on that practice with subtle session player finesse that folds in piano, mellotron, organ, several string instruments and more to lend the album its light and engaging feel.
The album-opening “Doesn’t It Feel Good” best puts across this crisp production touch; rhythmic, but sparsely attired in understated synths, drum programming, electric and bass guitar lines, it lets Loeb occupy the track’s heart as a singer and lyricist. An attentive ear will also pick up fellow alternative rock-pop chanteuse Michelle Branch on support vocals behind Loeb. From the slight bite of “Another Day” and around to the adult contemporary pop of “For The Birch,” Loeb is a continually winsome and intelligent presence. Her stories are both approachable and absorbing, delivered with a unique vocal blend comprised of equal amounts of distance and passion.
As A Simple Trick To Happiness concludes with the quiet, but beautiful “Wonder”—one of the record’s highlights—the listener is left with the sense that Loeb is more than acutely aware of her aural formula and just how best to execute it. Given that her debut effort Tails (1995) appeared 25 years ago, one cannot really dispute the staying power of her tactics and that she has made a lane that is wholly her own.
It is true that A Simple Trick To Happiness doesn’t reinvent the wheel—this was never the intent of this long player though. A Simple Trick To Happiness is all about charting a path between comfort and the unknown, and as the album demonstrates from beginning to end, she knows how to walk this path on her terms.
Notable Tracks: “Doesn’t It Feel Good” | “For The Birch” | “I Wanna Go First” | “Wonder”
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