Cake and Pie

It was on ”Stay” and her irresistible second hit, ”I Do,” Lisa Loeb’s strength is her clarity and simplicity. When built around her voice and guitar, her songs have an appealing, conversational intimacy. She’s adept at a blend of singer-songwriter braininess and pop-single bubble, and she continues to do that on the best tracks on Cake and Pie, ”Someone You Should Know” and ”The Way It Really Is”; this is one folkie who knows the power of an anthemic chorus. Overfrenetic guitar whiz (and beau) Dweezil Zappa adds electric oomph here and there; Loeb even rocks, mildly, on ”Too Fast Driving.” But ”Cake and Pie” also suffers from the preciousness and antiseptic production that hampered Loeb in the past.