Lisa Loeb’s debut album peaked at #30 in 1995. Since then, she’s been sliding into obscurity as pop music marches ever forward. She dropped out of the Adult Top 40 ten years ago. No big deal, life moves on for all of us.
She has a new album coming out in January titled No Fairy Tale. The Japanese release has sort of an anime type illustration of her in a chair in a short skirt and sweater. She was kind of attractive is you’re into Velma types, but this illustrated cover makes her look like Heather Locklear in addition to being thirty years younger. She looks 15. She is 45. Come on, girl, own it!
The American release has a more realistic album cover, and she hasn’t fallen apart, although that can’t have been her most flattering pose. Mick Jagger is like eighty now. It’s OK too look appropriately old on your record sleeve today, just say no to “enhancements” to your image. You just make the rest of us old farts look bad when you try to cover it up.
She did a reality show a few years ago about looking for love called “#1 Single” or something like that. After the show was over she did end up getting married and having a kid.
It’s definitely not the most flattering album cover, but she looks great for her age. Everyone knew her as the cute 90s hipster chick with glasses. I can’t blame her for not wanting to change her look. No one would recognize her if she did.
You realize that she probably had no control over what was used on the Japanese cover, don’t you? Most likely, she never even saw it until after it was released.
Lisa Loeb holds the unique record of being the only artist to ever have a number one hit (***Stay ***from the soundtrack of Reality Bites) while not being signed to a recording contract. She quickly was signed, but music styles changed and she never really got a lot of support from her label, who dropped her I think midway thru the run of only her second album. I think she had to ‘buy back’ the rights to her third album so she could release it independently.
As someone who generally likes hard rock Lisa Loeb is kind of an anomaly for me. I do have a thing for talented, cute, female singer-songwriters like her and Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow etc. Something else, any girl who can make plain librarian glasses look sexy (e.g. Tina Fey) is extra awesome!
Schwing! Although I’ll bet there was a tentacle somewhere in the original version, pervo Japs!
Based on the link to the US album cover, I am :dubious: at your “she was kind of attractive…”. Obviously there’s gonna be a ton of photoshopping for any album image, but she still looks great. I seriously don’t know why you used the past tense, unless it’s because she’s a super mega ultra ancient hag (aka over 35 and apparently even over 40!!! :eek: ) now.
If, not knowing it was Lisa Loeb, I was guessing the age of the drawn character on the Japanese album cover I would probably say 30. Definitley wouldn’t say 15 like the OP- certainly not by Japanese cartoon standards.
The U.S. album cover is horrible, but I don’t see any major attempts to hide her age. There’s even a little something going on with her neck that any truly self-consciouse age-phobic type would have insisted upon being “fixed” in photoshop. I don’t doubt for a minute that she looks very good for her age in real life. If you wanted her to look like an average middle-America 45 year old on the album cover, you would need to use photoshop to age her.
I remember watching MTV back in the day, with my dad sitting on the couch, reading the paper and making the occasional acerbic comment on the clips. “Stay” came on, and after listening to it in silence, my dad looked at me and said, “That was a bit too *real *for MTV, don’t you think?”
The video was directed by her friend Ethan Hawke, who had discovered her. He recommended his friend Ben Stiller put the song in his movie Reality Bites. It was filmed in her apartment (or so the Wikipedia entry says, but note that it’s empty). It’s one continuous shot:
I love the Japanese cover. You instantly will recognize that cover, while the American cover is just so blah.
Now here’s the best album cover she ever did.
Yes, the American cover is mundane and not an attractive picture. The Japanese cover is more stylish. But that’s not her likeness and she’s not that young.
Your example - Firecracker (1997) - is very attractive and more believable. However, IMO it still portrays her as a hottie when pictures indicate she’s just your normal woman on the street. I realize that’s the goal of all women’s fashion photography but I thought she was better than that.
