“MINDY SMITH,” Mindy Smith. Rating (five possible): 3 1/2.
Many artists front-load their releases, with the best songs at the beginning. A few finish strong. Yet singer-songwriter Mindy Smith has a distinct summit in the middle of her new “Mindy Smith,” with three tracks stringing together for a remarkable stretch.
And for an artist who has been kicking around for a decade on the verge of a significant breakout, this might be her moment.
It’s not like the Nashville-based New York native struggles mightily on the rest of her self-titled project; her songs and her execution are solid, if sometimes a bit generic.
Smith enchants early on with wistful longing and great melody as she makes a call to go “stepping out” on the track “Pretending the Stars.” And late on “Mindy Smith,” she effectively channels a lounge singer on “Cure for Love” and lands a solid punch in the swagger of “When You’re Walking on My Grave.”
However, Smith — whose country-rock stylings and youthful soprano put her somewhere between Shawn Colvin and Sheryl Crow — achieves a clear yet diverse voice on the fourth, fifth and sixth tracks. Her sometimes-too-fragile vocal might get lost elsewhere on “Mindy Smith,” but on the drinking-woman’s pity party “Don’t Mind Me,” she’s the little damaged soul stealing thunder from the firestorm of bluesy electricity.
On the subsequent romper-stomper “Tin Can,” she routinely flips her voice like a fluffy aural pancake in a down-home kitchen. Then Smith devastates with the waltzing, pedal-steel-flavored “Everything Here Will Be Fine,” a tender and heart-wrenching farewell to a dying mother. (Smith’s mother passed away in 1991.)
If that track doesn’t put a lump in your throat, nothing will.
