With the contemporary sound of Norah Jones and the street smarts of Jill Scott, New York-based Toby Lightman is the new girl in town (well, city). Her latest Bird on a Wire shows a balance between pop and R&B, with the feel-good tune "Better" standing out as the heavy-rotation radio single.
Theres a music biz truism that says an artist has her whole life to write her first album and six months to write her second. What that statement fails to take into account are maturation and inspirationtwo elements present in abundance throughout Bird on a Wire, on Atlantic Records, the surprising second album from New York-based writer/artist Toby Lightman. With 13 songs running the gamut from the Rufus-style funk-pop of Round and Round and the shimmering old-school R&B of Slipping to the moving lullaby Better and the modern-day torch song Weight of the World, the album documents an uncommonly gifted young artist in the act of becoming fully herself.