Leah Smith – Beautifully Made EP

Leah Smith
Beautifully Made EP (Release Date: October 21, 2009)
www.myspace.com/leahsmithmusic1

Earlier this month, TBGB reviewed the title track of twenty year-old singer/songwriter Leah Smith’s forthcoming EP, Beautifully Made. We had a chance to hear the entire six-song project from the former Israel & New Breed vocalist, and find it every bit as eloquent and introspective as its namesake song.

Throughout Beautifully Made, you feel as if you are listening in on Smith’s secret thoughts and prayers as she voices them sweetly and delicately, like a tranquil India.Arie or Corinne Bailey Rae. The instrumentation is appropriately light and piano-based, given the content, although “Dream World” and “Monster” do pick up the tempo. Still, the slower songs are the loveliest, with pop-infused melodies that will resonate well with those who steer clear of gospel music because it sounds too much like church.

Smith’s tough-but-fragile songs wrestle with issues that plague teens and young adults in particular, but really everyone has confronted them at one time or another. Whether self-doubt (“Beautifully Made”), the vagaries of love and friendship (“Shields and Swords”), or just plain evil in the world (“Dream World”), the collection on Beautifully Made has as its connecting thread the belief that despite everything, faith and hope conquer all.

Leah Smith is an artist with tremendous talent and promise. Some of her lyric lines are so packed tight with words the mind boggles, but in its quietest moments, her music is dreamy and evocative.

The EP will be available nationally October 21 on iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody and Digstation.

Four of Five Stars