REVIEW: Jenifer Smith, Code Mesa (Point Music)

- Jon Steltenpohl

Listening to the first track of Jenifer Smith's new album, Code Mesa, gets me excited. "Mesa Drive" is reminiscent of the Eurythmics and Enya. It starts with a cappella voices and forms an ethereal atmosphere with synthesized chimes. Smith layers her voice across many octaves to create a shimmering sound that simply mesmerizes. On track two, "Looking for Sleep", the good feelings continue. It's the same minimal style backed with a funky little jive guitar that eventually moves into a engaging beat of two or three layers of voice on top of many more layers of instruments.

But, Smith falters on the third track, "Radio Bagdad". It starts out well enough with a monkish, echoed exercise in tonal harmonies, but by the end of the song, nothing has changed. The dynamic is the same, the melody doesn't move, and the lyrics become annoyingly repetitive. The power of repetition to gain a mantra effect is nothing new, but 5 and a half minutes of the same thing with no dynamic changes just doesn't cut it. Other tracks follow the same pattern, and the album withers in a myriad of needless repetition.

Smith provides us with only two more songs, "Return from Calvery" and "Bodycount", that live up to the promise of the first two tracks. It's a shame, because the harmonies Smith has mastered are impressive. Code Mesa shows great promise for Smith, and the four superior tracks would make an incredible debut EP. Unfortunately, four out of ten songs doesn't make for an incredible album, and Code Mesa serves only as an announcement to keep an eye on this emerging artist.