Published on Feb 23, 2005
Note to Ms. Ashlee: nepotism comes with a high price. It makes
it easier to get there, but you have to work twice as hard to prove
yourself.
This album better be good.
Ashlee Simpson’s marketing team managed to synergize her
angle-heavy background and her successful reality show (it must be
the equivalent of having an infomercial every week) to produce a
Billboard-topping album. Older sibling Jessica Simpson is very much
in use here, as her squeaky-wholesome-chaste-blonde image is played
off against by Ashlee’s ’80s rocker-chick hair and sound, like Jem
and the Holograms vs. the Misfits. (“The producer wants me to sound
like Hilary Duff. I don’t want to sound like Hilary Duff! I want
the sound to be rock!”)
It works, almost.
The album sound is an energetic fusion of distorted drums,
vocals and guitars, borrowing much from Sheryl Crow. In songs like
“Surrender” and “Unreachable” Simpson’s voice has an attractive
rasp that blends well with the music, willing to be part of the
sound instead of being its egomaniacal star. And I’m surprised at
how much battered maturity she reaches out with in the
love-gone-wrong “Undiscovered” and the convincing “Nothing New,”
which is a fairly complex take on relationships (definitely not
Hilary Duff). The obvious artist to bring up here for comparison is
Avril Lavigne, whose Matrix-polished sound also borrows heavily
from rock, but Lavigne fans would stone me to death for not
mentioning at this point how Lavigne performs live religiously.
And yes, the songwriting is a bit repetitive as it’s the same
old I’m-an-independent-girl-who-deserves-respect tirade, but maybe
it’s a message that needs to be repeated every generation. A
possible “standout” in songwriting is “Shadow” which describes
growing up in the shadow of her sister, although it too quickly
succumbs to I’m-an-independent-girl-yadda-yadda.
The ultimate flaw of this album is that the sound is played out
to death, like she found something that worked and dug herself a
hole. I don’t want to be Ashlee-cist here, but all the songs sound
the same. I do discern potential, and will give her a C, which is a
pretty good grade for a teeny pop album at The Daily Vault. Now
excuse me while I hoe-down off the stage…