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Mindy Smith
Stupid Love
(Vanguard)
First Appeared in The Music Box, October 2009, Volume 16, #10
Written by John Metzger
Mon October 26, 2009, 06:30 AM CDT
The enormous amount of attention and praise that was slathered on Mindy Smith
after she recorded a cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene may have seemed like
a blessing. Initially, the tune jump-started her career, but over time, it
became a bit of a curse. Smith wasn’t really ready for prime time: her lyrical
conceptions were fairly routine, and her musical identity had not yet begun to
assert itself. By the time that she issued her debut One Moment More,
expectations were absurdly high. While the set certainly had its moments, such
as the moving gospel-imbued call of Come to Jesus, it also sometimes
slipped into lightweight mediocrity.
Smith has been fighting to redefine herself ever since. Because she was
thrust into the limelight, Smith’s struggle has played out publicly over the
course of her last two endeavors: Long Island Shores and My Holiday.
On the former set, she succeeded in broadening her appeal by following the
natural path of her evolution. There wasn’t anything on the outing that she
hadn’t attempted on One Moment More, but at least she consistently
sounded authentic. With My Holiday, Smith appeared to turn a corner by
providing a better backdrop for her growth. In hindsight, however, in couching
the collection as a Yuletide offering, she also was able to mask her lingering
deficiencies.
With each passing album, Smith has been pushing her music further and further
away from its roots-oriented beginnings. This may be an attempt to put some
distance between herself and her early work, or it simply might be a reflection
of the artist she wants to become. With Stupid Love, Smith completely
jettisons the notion that she is a country act. The pluck of a banjo might lurk
in the background of several tracks, and the candlelight flicker of a pair of
acoustic guitars might be used to frame her voice on Telescope. Stupid
Love, however, is a tried-and-true pop album that is influenced more by
Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow, and Patty Griffin than it is by Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, or Emmylou Harris.
The problem, however, is that in forging her transition to a new style, Smith
merely has swapped one set of generic arrangements for another. Throughout
Stupid Love, she is aided by a handful of special guests — Vince Gill, Leigh Nash, Amy Grant, Thad Cockrell, and Jeremy Lister make appearances on the
collection. In truth, however, they add very little to the proceedings. After
the breezy luminescence of What Went Wrong and the irresistible
jauntiness of Highs and Lows, the songs on Stupid Love begin to
drift past in a pleasantly easy-going fashion, and they never truly are given an
opportunity to gain traction or resonance.
Even so, Stupid Love repeats the demonstration of maturity and grand
ambitions that Smith brought to bear on My Holiday. Its 13 tracks form a
cohesive meditation on relationships. Over the course of Stupid Love,
Smith wrestles with her emotions as she attempts to accept her faltering love
life for what it is. On the opening cut What Went Wrong, she searches for
herself in the wake of an affair that has ended, while on Telescope, she
mournfully tries to bridge the distance that separates her from her partner. In
a sense, the outing traces the thoughts in her head as she slowly comes to
realize that reconciliation will never come to pass.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to see how Stupid Love will move from its
beginning to its ending. Without any lyrical twists or surprise endings tucked
inside the set’s 13 tracks, Smith’s emotional outpourings begin to sound rather
redundant. Although the entirety of Stupid Love is considerably more
consistent and durable than One Moment More, it still largely feels as if
Smith has watered down her compositions so that they will appeal to the widest
possible audience. One can only hope that once she mends her broken heart,
she’ll rediscover herself in the process. 
Of Further Interest...
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Indigo Girls - Poseidon and the Bitter Bug
The Watson Twins - Fire Songs
Stupid Love is available
from Amazon. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2009 The Music Box
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