This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Five years is a fairly long time between albums. OK, maybe not for Axl Rose. But for a lightweight folk-popster like Lisa Loeb, it’s more than enough time to explore new directions, learn new instruments, grow as an artist — or, at the very least, write some first-rate new tunes.
Lord only knows what Loeb has been doing in the five years since she put out her last CD Firecracker, but it sure didn’t include any of the above. The 12-track Cake and Pie finds Loeb in the very same place she started nearly a decade ago with Stay, gently strumming her acoustic guitar and lightly crooning pleasant girly-pop ballads full of brainy self-absorption and bittersweet longing, broken up by the occasional Liz Phairish garage-rocker. Oh, there is one difference: Boyfriend Dweezil Zappa adds some whammy-bar guitar weirdness here and there. Beyond that, Cake and Pie is mostly bland leftovers.
