Tuned In review: Eli Lieb's potential squandered on poor pace

Eli Lieb is reportedly a lifelong devotee of Transcendental Meditation, and one listen to his self-produced, self-titled debut confirms he’s way off pace from the norm. Unfortunately, the mopey “Eli Lieb” likely destines him to obscurity for now, an underappreciated electro-pop performer who turned his potential inside-out for the sake of art.

And he is indeed an artist, which makes listening to his release all the more frustrating: Lieb has good lyrical perspective, an effectively plaintive voice and a deft way with dark, synthethic-symphonic sounds. But he consistently gets stuck in neutral or takes two steps back for every one step forward. The result is a scattering of moody ballads that work on an individual basis, a few jolts of dance music that generally get choked off, and several cuts where listeners might wish Lieb would (not literally) open a vein already and put them out of their misery.

The Iowa native makes an inauspicious start with the somber cinematic introduction “Red” followed by a death march of long notes on “All I Wanted.” It gets marginally better with the subsequent “Place of Paradise” as a reverberating wash of synths lends a sense of movement while he sings, “Hoping for someone, closing your eyes at night/You’re praying to God, and you don’t know why.”

More stumbles: Although a heavy current of chunky rhythm pushes by on “Tidal Waves,” Lieb inexplicably digs in for an overwrought, strung out delivery that runs counter to the cadence, and the deceptively titled “We Own the Beat” sounds like a chopped-up remix of what once might have been an invigorating dance song.

Still, Lieb gets some momentum going on an eerie “Ghost,” singing, “The world is on fire, up in flames ... Every day I’m fading more into a ghost.” And his surpressed rage at a lying, cheating lover is palpable on the crafty and cohesive “Red and Blue.”

Lieb has what he needs to break out — except, perhaps, the instinct on how to put it together for a wide audience.

Rating: 2.5 stars (out of five)

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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