SFWEEKLY January 19-25, 2005
Night & Day
This Week's Day-by-Day Picks
BY JOYCE SLATON & HIYA SWANHUYSER
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Lisa Dewey's soaring, dreamy vocals, when layered over reverberating piano and guitar, are easy to buttonhole: If you like the ethereal pop made famous by the British record label 4AD, you're probably going to like her sound, too. But Dewey's no cookie-cutter goth girl; instead,
she's a committed, inspired musician whose talent lured none other than the Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde to provide producing help on her two most recent albums. The latest, Busk, is now out on Dewey's own Kitchen Whore label, also home to former Wall of Voodoo guitarist Marc Moreland. The album -- and her "Sexiest Artist" title, granted by her hometown weekly newspaper in San Jose -- makes us wonder why she's not better known. Dewey and Caldera open for Estereo at 9 p.m. at the Hotel Utah, 500 Fourth St. (at Bryant), S.F. Admission is $6; call 546-6300 or visit www.thehotelutahsaloon.com.
-Hiya Swanhuyser

collectedsounds.com
May 26, 2004
Lisa Dewey follows her impressive Weather Changer Girl with a new album. She's working with Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins and Michael Steele of the Bangles fame. The dreamy strains of "Mellow Day" leads us into a record of sweet vocals and melodies. It's hard not to think of the Cocteaus."Rushing" is ecstatic cascades of Raymonde's guitar and Dewey's lovely voice. The lengthy "Hollow" is a great song. Dewey's voice and the melody lead to pure pop nirvana. It spins around hypnotically, gaining momentum with each repetition of the chorus.
"Caught up in a haze, I can consume you, in a drawn out chaotic, swooning drenched dream" sighs Dewey rapturously. "Thieves and Thievery" is gorgeously sad. This is another great record by Lisa Dewey. Give it a try.
-Anna Maria Stjärnell (collectedsounds.com)

Splendid Magazine
June 15, 2004
Bolstered by production assistance from former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde, Busk stands as singer/songwriter Lisa Dewey's best sounding  and most fully realized collection to date. Although the songs aren't explicitly interconnected, Busk sounds like a concept album centered around love's maddening infatuation/obsession/dissolution cycle. Darkness and longing haunt the songs, shrouding even the folksy "Thieves & Thievery" in the long shadows of evening. Twilight has always been Raymonde's time to shine and he's in top form here,sprinkling that swirly, shimmery Cocteau pixie dust all over "Dream Wild" and "She Would", while multi-tracking Dewey's vocals into husky choruses. Busk is an enjoyably moody ride. -Steve English (Splendid Magazine)

Impact Press
June/July 2004
Lisa Dewey & The Lotus Life Busk (Kitchen Whore Records/Bella Union) Think Mazzy Star meets Everything But the Girl. Some of the darkness and drones of Mazzy Star, but with the pop melodies of EBTG. Dewey's vocals are beautifully layered with atmospheric melodies, and the passion behind them remains consistent through the album. At times, she even touches upon a PJ Harvey feel.
-(MP)

HighBias.com
July 4, 2004
I've always hated the Sundays; just couldn't stand the singer's voice or her band's happy hippy folk pop. This in turn prejudiced me against any band with songs that were basically folk pop dressed in alternative rock drag. Well, either I'm less cranky now or I've just been listening
to the wrong shit all these years. Lisa Dewey and her band the Lotus Life follow the same formula on Busk, with songs that sound as if they started out as singer/songwriter meditations then transformed into ethereal electric pop. But her no-nonsense singing, darker outlook and
delectable melodies make "Dream Wild," "Hollow" and "Mellow Day" attractive and compelling.
-Michael Toland

PopMatters.com
October 4, 2004
The Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde help Lisa Dewey produce her latest effort Busk, and the results certainly have that patented ethereal and dreamy Twins sound. No complaints from this listener; Ever since that group broke up, there's been a huge gap left behind. Not to say Dewey
will invoke images of Liz Fraser, as she's got her own voice and style of singing, but it is certainly as pleasant and hypnotic as Liz's. It's hard to beat the opening cut "Mellow Day" here, but Dewey turns out an impeccable album with song after song of wistful melodies that may also remind one of the great indie group Tsunami during their Deep End era. Take your pick from such gems as "Rushing," Thieves & Thievery," and "Hollow." These and the rest of the tunes on this album will all take you someplace else while listening. Someplace warm and familiar. This is definitely one of those albums you'll want to return to time and again. Beautiful.
-Jason Thompson

The Big Takeover
October 2004
LISA DEWEY & The Lotus Life BUSK (Bella Union/Kitchen Whore) Lisa Dewey's past albums, particularly Weather Changer Girl and Lola Cuki were exceptional, her mantra-like pieces being clear standouts. Now she's back with Busk, a co-release; her own Kitchen Whore Records
and Guthrie/Raymonde's Bella Union.Raymonde adds his signature,otherworldly atmospherics to Dewey's unique, down-to-earth singing. The contrast of styles is amazingly effective. The album sparkles and gleams in all the correct places, and never weighs down Dewey's strong voice with over-ornamentation. Multi-tracking some of her choruses is another deft touch. Dewey has one confident, beautiful voice, and her familiar tales of dissolving love always seem to convey a sense of hope; a sense that there is indeed light at the end of the  tunnel.(www.lisadewey.com)
-Michael Pearlstein

DJ Modern Mark (KSCU)
June 2004
Lisa Dewey has come a long way since her first album ten years ago. >From an Ani Difranco-based folk singer to a more subdued Sarah McClachlan-style, Lisa has added a full-fledged band to her acoustic gems to produce a more lush full sound to her already beautiful voice
that fancies all her female fans that swoon over her at her shows. Lyrically, the songs are diverse and give the listener a variety of Lisa's creative nature with song writing. The single, "Mellow Day," proves that Lisa is structuring her songs in a way that shows she can deliver a wave of mystique with her variety-driven writing style like no other bay-area artist can. Even the upbeat "Thieves In Thievery" has something about it that makes you wonder how she managed to take her own sound and add a bit of CRANBERRIES-esque towards the last half of the song. "The Cycle is Now Broken" has a chorus in it that shows off Lisa's ability to stretch her vocal chords to the max and to understand what I'm talking about you'll just have to listen for yourself. Songs like "Two Baskets of Your Clean Clothes" and "Sometimes" are more relaxed in nature yet stand out as the best epics on Busk both musically and lyrically. Evident throughout the album is the beautiful COCTEAU TWINS influence that makes Busk full of life and sweetness that is best explained when you find Simon Raymonde credited for production assistance.
-DJ Modern Mark (KSCU)

The S.F. Examiner
Thursday June 24, 2004 Weekend Concert Guide Lisa Dewey & The Lotus Life with Astral and Tub Lisa Dewey's band The Lotus Life really completes the local singer-songwriter's coffeehouse style, the result being a folk-rock-pop blend that Dewey herself describes as "floaty pop." For their new album, "Busk," Dewey and her band mates collaborated with Simon
Raymonde, bassist for the legendary Cocteau Twins, and the album shares the British art-school favorites' dreamy, ethereal vibe. Read more at www.lisadewey.com.
-Bill Picture
9 p.m. Saturday at The Blank Club, 44 South Almaden Blvd., San Jose.
Tickets are $5. Call (415) 29-BLANK or visit www.theblankclub.com.