Critics usually throw the word "ambitious" at musicians' debut albums with negative implications. However, being ambitious is actually a strong characteristic of Lisa Loeb on her debut, "Tails."

The album is her first release since making huge waves in the pop music world with her song, "Stay." The song was featured prominently in the movie "Reality Bites," and it immediately shot her to the top of the charts without even having an album. She set off a gigantic bidding war between the record labels, with Geffen as the victor.

"Tails" is the first full-length album for the native New Yorker, and it's a great first try. Loeb shows strong musical ideas backed by strong pop sensibilities. She does have a talent for writing some good lyrics, but at other times this is the area she lacks in the most. This is definitely an area in which she could use improvement.

Loeb has a very beautiful, dynamic voice, but the problem is that she buries it underneath musical layers in the album. She insists on including excessive string arrangements on several of the songs, which only pull attention away from her voice. A lesson that Loeb definitely needs to learn is that many times, less is more. If she could learn to rely upon sparse instruments and more upon her vocals, then she will improve by leaps and bounds.

When Loeb is at her best, she proves to be one of the best young songwriters around today. "Sandalwood" is a very beautiful song, which is the only example on the album of how she sounds with little backing. It shows her great lyrical potential with the opening lines, "She can't tell me that all of the love songs have been written, 'cause she's never been in love with you before." This is a very emotionally strong and somewhat sexy song, with one of Loeb's best vocal performances.

The first single, "Do You Sleep?", is another beautiful and haunting track. She is able to trap a lonely, desperate feeling within the song's framework. She is also able to delicately weave a very gentle, emotionally subdued feeling into "Lisa Listen." The song shows Loeb almost looking at herself from the point of view of a lover, who tells her, "You're tipsy, you're turning, you are alive, you are burning."

A strange quirk witnessed throughout the album is that most of the songs need to get going for a while before they get really good. "Snow Day" has some good lyrics in its verses, but this is forced into the middle of the song after a slow beginning. "Rose-Colored Times" has some weird lyrics and great vocals, but it again takes a while to really become interesting.

There are some really bad spots on the album, which is to be expected on a debut. "When All the Stars Were Falling" has some really bad lyrics (including a quote taken directly from a cab driver). The worst song on the album is easily "Waiting for Wednesday." It is poppy to a fault. There are just really bad lyrics and pretty standard music, and it shows a bad talent for repeating some lyrics ad nauseum (the phrase "waiting for Wednesday" and "show you goodbye" appear a combined total of 21 times in the song).

The rest of the album is pretty listenable. "Alone" has a really great, simple beat with pretty good lyrics throughout most of the song. It nearly loses it at the end, when she sings, "You are the treasure custodian cleaning the moon for me./ Scouring the sky so the stars would shine bright." Sure, Lisa.

Either the record company or Loeb made the bad decision of including "Stay" as the last song on the album. It is a great song, but people have heard it more than enough times by now. If she would have done a little something different to it, it might have been worth including, but it's the exact same version found on "Reality Bites."

"Garden of Delights" seems to be unintentionally goofy, but at least it rocks. Lastly, the opener, "It's Over," has some good instrumentation and vocals, but Loeb does deserve some credit for being creative enough to put a song with that title at the beginning.

Time will hopefully prove that Loeb is a great songwriter who has the future entirely open to her. "Tails" is a rough, occasionally uneven affair, but it's not a bad way to start.