Were You Prom Queen?

Album Review

The second album from Atlanta native Lindsay Smith demonstrates growth from her debut effort, Tales From the Fruitbat Vat. She retains a love of the gimmicky but balances it with tightened songwriting and a sympathetic production from Kenny Howes, resulting in a buoyant, pleasant album. Were You Prom Queen? isn't as snarky as one might infer from the title and liner photos — Smith offers many emotions, but bitterness isn't one of them — rather, its affections stick with the moderately humorous and inoffensive. Best of the lot are "Basically Good," an affirmation of human nature that aptly sets the tone for the album, and the energetic "I Don't Like Drinking." The latter is a cute bit of storytelling, but in other places on the record, Smith's cute bleeds into cutesy, to her artistic detriment. She dabbles in bluegrass and folk, but she's really a jangle pop artist at the end of the day; and her voice, neither remarkably strong nor rangy, suits the jangly material well. Sometimes her novelty's a bit thick and gimmicky, as on "One Fish Two Fish" (a Dr. Seuss-ish primer on casual dating) and the convoluted "(I Will Bring You) Apples Red," but on the whole, Smith's Were You Prom Queen? is an enjoyable, sunny album, if not a very memorable one.