Kirk Smith's aggressively articulate debut CD reveals that he's not merely another emerging artist from Austin, but one who's already exposed himself and is just waiting for the crowd to gather 'round, staring and pointing.

Daring to shun the theatre world by writing music for the masses instead of plays for the pretentious, for which he had recently received wide acclaim, Smith returned to writing what he started with in the first place - music.

While Suddenly Bright Out's assertive opener, "Stop Comets", pays tribute to Smith's hometown with a definitively Austin vibe, this is hardly where his strength lies. He's at his best on more gentle, aura-laden songs like "Suddenly So Bright", where he quite effortlessly accomplishes unfailing vocal clarity over a wide range, and "Anniversary", where tentative chords taunt and tease the listener further inward.

Smith's dramatic lyrical style is consistently compelling, evident of his theatrical experience. His songs offer both the unexpected with the familiar, which makes them powerfully passionate and persuasive, yet still tangibly fragile. But nowhere is his music as sweetly serendipitous as on the last track, "Aloud", a sentimental acoustic ballad that offers up everyman's hidden fears in the simple poetry of, "If I could dance like this aloud."

A. Koledin