Get this beautifully packaged digipak CD, complete with a 6-page color insert (autographed upon request only) to complete your Sy Smith collection! Oh, you don't know about this album? Read on... Released in 2012, "Fast And Curious" is probably Sy Smith's most under-appreciated album, even as critics gave it rave reviews. Produced entirely by electronic/jazz/dance keyboardist/DJ Mark de Clive-Lowe, this fourth studio album from Sy was a sonic departure from previous offerings. But still remaining lyrically whimsical, always the storyteller and as the title suggests, the tempos regularly push past 110 and the themes dip into areas of unadulterated eroticism, self-empowerment, cosmic love and collective unity. Vocally, Sy delivers everything from ambient whispers to 80s freestyle to whistle notes that sound almost unworldly. Music critic L. Michael Gipson writes "On these kaleidoscopic soundscapes, Sy’s liquid vocals literally float and flow like a river, softening the edges of de Clive Lowe’s relentless beats and driving grooves. These elements best come together on creamy dreams like “Personal Paradise“ (featuring Shelia E on percussion), “Let The Rain Fall Down,” and a cover of “Nights (Feels Like Getting Down)” with Rahsaan Patterson that will make you wanna smack your mama. Smith’s supple harmonies and airy whistle notes showcase her years as a go-to background and session singer, elevating “Primacy Effect” from another atmospheric house tune to a tour de force of dynamic arrangement, voice, and composition. Mark de Clive Lowe shows out on the broken beat track for “The Ooh to My Ahh” and the tropical, acid jazz of “People of the Sun,” cuts that illustrates a range of voices effortlessly at Smith’s disposal when in the right producer’s hands and with fitting material. “Teena,” an inspired, unconventional tribute to the recently departed Teena Marie, also surprises by taking a fuller, slowed down, more soulfully avant-garde approach to the re-imagined melody, chorus, and grooves of Marie classics like “Lovergirl,” without making it a direct cover—genius. Easily the best release by a female solo artist this year to-date, Sy Smith raises her stock creatively and commercially with an album that keeps 2012 hitting a winning streak, joining Robert Glasper’s Black Radio, Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society, Gregory Porter’s Be Good, and several #winning others in supplying some of the best hybrid soul, jazz, R&B, blues and electronica that we’ve heard in an age. Congratulations, Mrs. Smith on making us sweat and smile our way into the new year. Highly Recommended."
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