| Holy Smokes | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Suzzy Roche |
| Cover: | Holy Smokes (album).jpg |
| Released: | 1997 |
| Genre: | Pop, folk |
| Label: | Red House Records[1] |
| Producer: | Stewart Lerman, Suzzy Roche |
| Next Title: | Songs from an Unmarried Housewife and Mother, Greenwich Village, USA |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
Holy Smokes is the debut solo album by the American musician Suzzy Roche, released in 1997.[2] [3] It was the first solo album by a member of the Roches.[4] Roche supported the album by embarking on a tour, playing solo with just a guitar.[5]
The album was produced by Stewart Lerman and Roche.[6] Roche wrote 11 of the album's 12 songs; the final track is based on poem written by her mother.[7] The vocals were often multitracked, to reproduce the harmony sound of the Roches; Jules Shear and Maggie Roche also contributed vocals.[6] [8] [9]
Roche spent close to two years working on Holy Smokes.[10] The decision to make a solo album was inspired by a book of Irish poetry given to her by her late father.[11]
The Washington Post wrote that the songs "occupy that broad middle ground of somewhat amusing, somewhat touching songs about the trials and joys of growing up a smart, middle-class American woman."[7] Entertainment Weekly deemed the album "a deceptively placid-sounding solo effort whose surface calm belies its emotional turbulence." The Philadelphia Inquirer thought that "Roche's inherent ethereal charm belies the unrelieved heartbreak that colors much of Holy Smokes."[10]
New York concluded that Roche's "lyric are more personal than the Roches', and her melodic sense is as vivid."[12] The Chicago Tribune thought that "Roche sets one warm, folky melody after another amid cozy piano-acoustic guitar textures, creating a relaxed and intimate work."[13]
AllMusic called the album "an oddly tentative premiere for such a seasoned performer, and not as much fun as it should have been."