The Way It Really Is

AMG Review of The Way It Really Is

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

The fluke smash hit of Lisa Loeb's debut single, "Stay (I Missed You)," in 1994 was a blessing since it gave her a career, but a curse since it defined her career. For many, she was just a one-hit wonder, and it took her a long time to shake that stigma as she kept cutting records and cultivating a cult audience. She lost her major-label deal in the process, but majors weren't suited for her anyway since it forced her to work on a scale that was too large for the modest music she made. In 2004, a decade after "Stay," she had signed to Rounder's Zoe subsidiary, a better fit for her warm, low-key folk-pop and allads, as The Way It Really Is, her first album for the label, proves. Quite simply, it's the best, most cohesive record she's made, a clean, crisp collection of well-crafted, gentle tunes that slowly, surely work into the subconscious. Loeb co-produced the album with her husband Dweezil Zappa, and they never overdress the songs, nor do they rely on Spartan, all-acoustic arrangements; they let the music breathe, sometimes adding layers of guitars and keyboards, sometimes keeping it to just her and another instrument or two. The Way It Really Is is still a quiet, modest album, but that's its appeal -- by being sounding so modest, Loeb's skills as a songwriter stand out, as do her charms as a singer. It's a sweet, ingratiating album, the first that she's made to truly deliver on the promise of "Stay," the one that offers definitive proof that Loeb is more than a one-hit wonder.