Betsy Lucas' Delivery Girl is soulful pop with an emphasis on stellar songwriting and unique, heartfelt vocals. Best termed "alternative soul-folk", these original tunes exude a classic air and reveal a timeless quality without resorting to cliche's. Betsy really is the San Francisco/Bay Area's best kept musical secret; but not for long...
Delivery Girl BETSY LUCAS (LuCasa Farms Records)
On her debut album, Bay Area songwriter Betsy Lucas has managed to do something that is highly rare and very special - she has created music that's undeniably retro but doesn't hit you over the head and drag you whimpering into it's campy, so bad-it's-good pop cultural boneyard where you're forced to drink out of Sonny and Cher mugs while being patted on the head for getting the joke. Delivery Girl harkens back to the singer-songwriter salad days of Carly Simon, Carole King, and Joan Armatrading, with soulful pop-rock that's brainy, vulnerable, and snap-your-fingers catchy. The tracks "One Way Love", "Do I Dare", and "If She Goes", are the sound of a woman with a finely developed musical range who nevertheless understands the immediate benefits of throwing a few shoo-be-doos and la-la-las into the mix. The instrumentation has as much to do with the '70s feel as Lucas's voice (though she does sound spookily like Carly)-- and the inventive arrangements, augmented by flute, keyboards, and trumpet, give songs like "Walls of Convention" an ambitious heft.
1 | Do I Dare | |
2 | A Place For Me | |
3 | One Way Love | |
4 | Walls Of Convention | |
5 | I Can't Pretend | |
6 | If She Goes | |
7 | Every Once In A While | |
8 | Faded In | |
9 | Just Enuf | |
10 | How Not To Play | |
11 | The Only Words | |
12 | What I Don't Say | |
13 | Decide Today | |
14 | Cupid's Bow | |
15 | Found It On The Way | |
16 | Life Is Good |