MINDY SMITH

Stupid Love

Art helps us articulate emotions. When complex feelings seem impossible to condense into words, we turn to musicians to speak on our behalf. On her new album, Stupid Love, Mindy Smith gives voice to the myriad sentiments, from elation to sorrow, that accompany falling in love.

As she acknowledges on the first single “Highs and Lows,” life is full of twists and turns. And so are these thirteen originals. The solemn “I’m Disappointed,” a bruised soliloquy for just voice and organ, gives way to the idyllic “True Love of Mine.” With her straightforward, honest delivery, Smith steers Stupid Love through its varied emotional terrain, till the journey concludes with the rollicking “Take a Holiday.”

Few singers are better prepared than Smith to sing convincingly about such a wide range of emotions. Her pure, unaffected soprano illuminates her words and sentiments—even when it seems as if she is singing for just herself, as on the intimate “Telescope.” Each performance is rendered with exquisite care. Listen to the way she slowly rises out of world-weary dejection on the opening “What Went Wrong,” the light gradually filling her voice like dawn breaking over the horizon.