Self-taught and driven, Stacy independently released her full-length CD, “Apples & Oranges” in November 2007. Her sound encompasses a variety of musical styles and can be classified as Folka: Electronic Folk Rock.

Stacy’s list of accomplishments include: Song placement on ABC Family “Samurai Girl”, the CW “Girlfriends” and MTV “The Hills”, “Engaged and Underaged” and “My Super Sixteen”. Stacy was a guest VJ on MTV’s “Hits” Series. She has also been featured on MTV as an “On the Brink Artist”. Stacy has won “Best out of County” artist at the 2006 Inland Empire Music Awards, California; and was the winner of “Best Female Performer” award at the 2006 Orange County Music Awards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacy_Clark

I first discovered her back in either 2005 or 2006, through my friend Danny, who was in a band at the time, & had performed with her before. On his recommendation, I checked out her Myspace page, and she had some songs on it. I played one, Unusual, and was instantly hooked. I kept going back to her page, to replay the song over and over again. Until I finally decided to order the 4-song EP that was available at the time.

Since then, I have gone to see her perform live several times. And I have to tell you, she is a great performer. I’ve seen her perform by herself with an acoustic guitar & a keyboard and with a full backing band. In front of a packed club, and in front of me and like 6 other people. Whatever the scene or circumstances, Stacy Clark puts her all into her performances. If she happens to be in your town, I would definitely advise checking her out, I doubt you would ever be disappointed.

Her greatest strength is her knack for crafting melodies and writing hooks that stick with you. You know how sometimes a song gets stuck in your head for days? Well, half the songs she writes are those types of songs. Invariably, after a show, I’ll be humming one of her songs to myself in the car on the way home. So it was no surprise to me at all to find out that one of her new songs, which hasn’t been released yet, was recently selected for a Bell Palm Pre Commercial, since that’s exactly the kind of thing you look for in a commercial “jingle,” a tune that will stay with the viewer.

Her latest full-length CD is due in a couple months, but here is a review of her last CD, “Apples & Oranges,” released in Nov. 2007, which included the 4 songs from the EP, plus 7 new ones.

1/MATTER OF TIME [2:04]

Great song to open the album. Sort of mid-tempo, with an almost electronic melody. Probably the closest to a “dance” song that I’ve ever heard her do, so far.

2/CLOSER [3:23]

Another mid-tempo track, though a little slower. A hypnotic melody, with some very effective backing vocals by Tim Pagnotta

3/WON’T LET YOU [2:46]

A nice mellow track that will have you nodding your head along with the beat.

4/HELLO AGAIN [2:59]

A guitar-driven track that sort of reminds me of an 80’s power-ballad (in a good way), in the way the slow verses build to a crescendo during the chorus. I love it when she performs this one live.

5/PEPPERMINT PATTIES [3:22]

A great song about not wanting to let an ex back into your life. We’ve all been there and can relate.

6/EMPTY BOTTLES [2:48]
Another favorite of mine, it’s the chorus build-up is similar in format to “Hello Again,” and works just as well.

7/UNUSUAL [3:16]

This is the song that started it for me and made me a Stacy Clark fan. It remains her signature song to me, which I’ll probably always associate her with. Like Michael Jackson and “Billie Jean,” or Madonna and “Like A Virgin.” It will never be dated.

8/YOU MAKE IT WORSE [3:24]

This is one of her original songs, from the first EP. It’s a slow song, which didn’t grab me immediately, but got better the more I listened to it, but it’s still not one of my favorites. I seem to like it better when she performs it live than listening to the recording.

9/RECLUSE [3:07]

Decent, but not a favorite track of mine.

10/SAY WHAT YOU WANT [4:20]

“And those words you wrote
Oh they cut me like a knife
If you would have chose differently
I would not be in your life”

Slow track. One of the original songs. After “Unusual,” this was my 2nd favorite as soon as I first heard it on Myspace. Love the lyrics and the melody.

11/STRANGE [2:59]

This mid-tempo track brings the album to a satisfying close.

This CD gets a 9 out of 10 (yeah, that’s even higher than I scored my favorite rapper Jay Z’s last CD) from me, with my only real complaint being that it’s a bit short, not only in terms of the number of songs but the length of each one. This CD left me wanting more!

So I am anxiously awaiting the follow-up CD (& will review it here as soon as it’s available), and highly recommend her current music to everyone.

For all of you various Social Network addicts, you can find Stacy Clark on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, as well as on her
Youtube page, which includes some exclusive videos of her performing live, as well as showing her life on the road and in the studio.

Apples & Oranges is available on iTunes and Amazon.