My favorite singer, Stacy Clark, who I just saw perform live @ the Hard Rock Cafe a few months ago, as just released a new album, to follow up her previous album Connect The Dots. Well, actually, Patterns feels more like an EP, as it is only 8 songs, which are all pretty short. This is the main complaint I’ve had about her previous albums, the relatively short length, and this is the shortest. But it was self-financed, via donations on PledgeMusic, so it’s understandable that she may have needed to cut corners a bit. But make no mistake, there’s no drop in quality in the songs that we do get this time. You can tell she put her all into this.

1. Lose My Mind A mid-tempo song that experiments with her voice, changing the sound of it a few times during the song, and has a very haunting vocal chorus of her humming that I found hypnotic.
2. Days Into Nights This is another mid-tempo song, but has more of a rock feel to it. I’d love to hear this one live, with her backed by a full band.
3. Sign A bit of a faster song, with another hypnotic chorus.
4. Falling Apart The strange thing about this is that, as of this writing, iTunes has the #4 track listed as “Decimals & Music Notes”, same as it was listed on the PledgeMusic download page, but the actual song is called “Falling Apart”. And that’s clearly the name of the song because it’s sang in the chorus. Must be some kind of technical glitch, I guess. Anyway, it’s a great, fast song.
5. Proof This was one of the new songs that she played when I saw her @ the Hardrock cafe, and I remembered loving the chorus, so I’m really glad to hear the finished now. This is my favorite track from this album.
6. Everything’s Changing A nice song, switches from up-tempo verses to mid-temp chorus.
7. Holiday I remember the first time she previewed this online, it didn’t grab me. But listening to it a few times, it grew on me.
8. Breathe The only slow song, it appears to be an acoustic track, and it’s pretty good, except it sounds like her voice has unnecessarily (in my opinion) enhanced, in order to give it an “echo.”

Again, the only complaint I have is that it’s too short. I’m left wanting more. Although I supposed that’s better than not wanting more, so there’s that. Overall, the songs aren’t much of a departure from her last 2 full albums, as I think each of these songs would have fit on Apples & Oranges or Connect The Dots, so if you’re a fan of Stacy’s previous released, then you should enjoy this. And if you’re not familiar with her, yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!? Go check her out!

Patterns by Stacy Clark is currently available for purchase on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/patterns/id480903851