Alphabeticalstyle. By first name.
Aly and AJ - Insomniatic
Still conflicted. I never really went in for "Potential Break-Up Song" because I got the sense that they were faking it. Still do, but I recognize that to a certain extent it doesn't matter how fake the fun is if it's actually fun. (Later in the A section, fake fun that isn't that fun HINT: #1 ROCK SINGLE SUPERSTAR.)
But it's a false start of fake fun. There's still fake fun, and some real fun, and some real pathos if you don't just have the iTunes version. ("Blush" is still the song to take away from it, but it has very little to do with the rest of the album.)
Fake fun that is great: "You already got my number. HUNH." Fake fun not so great: one of those songs I don't remember so well. Y'know, the one in the middle. I'm not sure which one I'm thinking of. Have grown to really like the slower numbers (esp. "Silence," which I initially didn't like), readily admit that overall this album is about twenty times better than their first album.
Seriously, none of it is even close to bad. Why do I kind of hate it -- or the idea of it? What's the idea, anyway?
TRENDSPOTTING: bonus tracks on Disney releases overshadowing most of the actual release. Case in point (later): Vanessa Hudgens', "Don't Talk," which is technically from 2006. Subject for future research.
Amy Diamond - "Stay My Baby"
Dammit, I'm gonna pissed if I hear her new album and it's as good as her last two albums without making an appearance on my year-end lists. I can't imagine it being any worse or any better, actually. GAH I shoulda waited. EDIT: Phew, not good enough to make my list. Check out "So 16."
Ashlee Simpson - "Outta My Head" and "Keep Me in the Dark"
The latter was an unintentional leak, so I'm not going to be as hard on it as I could be. Short story is that I can't recognize Ashlee outside or inside her music these days, and I'm actually kind of embarrassed for her (don't feel sorry, don't feel sorry for me). But when I say this, what I really mean to say is that Ashlee-I-can-defend-as-a-person(a) seems to be gone fishin'. Ashlee-whose-songs-are-enjoyable hasn't left the building yet, I hope, but what the hell am I gonna do with an Ashlee whose SONGS are enjoyable? Her SONGS being enjoyable isn't what keeps me up nights trying to find what this shit means. Like, yeah, the music is pretty good. BUT THE IDEAS ARE GREAT. Were great. It's a loss, but maybe there was just nowhere for her to go. I've gone from quietly hopeful to near-hopeless. Have Kara and Ashlee basically severed ties? They spoke to each other during Kara's Billboard article, but Kara has also gone dance, and could probably just as easily contribute to Ashlee's "Ooh Ooh Baby."
Ashley Tisdale - Headstrong
Just got a nosejob. Recognizability a non-issue, I probably couldn't have picked her out of a line-up anyway. Offers very little in the way of personality, has several great tunes in spite of herself. Best tune was ringing in my ears when I read this quote about said nosejob:
“I want my fans to know the truth. I’m not someone who is going to act like I had nothing done. I just want to be honest because my fans are everything to me.”
The cake you can't have and eat (because you took a slice out of it already yuk).
Anyway, don't know what to say about the album except that, aside from "Not Like That," I have about as much connection to it as Marie Serneholt's from last year, but Marie at least had the decency to keep it to 10 tracks with only two outright duds ("Love Making Love" and "Oxygen," which you can skip easily). Ashley's is cluttered up with all kindsa garbage, the worst probably being the "Love Me for Me" that BY DEFAULT I assume has to be like fifth best. If it turns out there are more "Love Me for Me"'s, it will rank lower. The title track is pretty godawful. Don't remember most of the second half of the CD, except a sorta Europop-Britney number (track 9?) that I enjoyed. She's no Marie Serneholt.
Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend"
Apparently there was an album attached to this song. I don't think I listened to it more than once several months ago; it was OK. I hate her so much. It's ridiculous. And even though Skye's output this year makes any comparison (Skye-Hevvy) kind of beside the point (i.e., I got bigger issues with Skye than AVRIL, whom I can ignore 300 or so days out of the year) I still resent Avril for going #1 with the pseudo-fun version of Skye's real-fun c. 2004. But Skye's story has been in the B-sides for about two years now, so maybe this will hold true for the time being?
Britney - Blackout
Apparently my teenpop album of the year, except it's not really teenpop and I don't know what being anything "of the year" actually means this year. As opposed to Paris Hilton's album feeling "very 2006." And Marit Larsen's album feeling "very Marit Larsen." I can feel Britney in it but it doesn't "feel Britney," there's something sinister about it. It's REALLY SEXY. Except she's not really asking you to have sex with her (anymore). Having sex with the Britney of "Get Naked (I Has a Plan)" would be much much much more fun than having sex with the Britney of "I'm a Slave 4 U" or "Toxic." Are people going to get mad at me when I say that "Piece of Me" isn't nearly as good as some people'd have ya think? (It's like the fourth or fifth worst track.) And "Why Should I Be Sad" is underrated, though not better than "Piece of Me."
Ciara - The Evolution
Woops, 2006. I probably shoulda voted for "Like a Boy" somewhere on my singles list. Call it #11.
The Dollyrots - "Because I'm Awesome"
I'm sure the album accompanying this is fun. I lost it when my hard drive crashed. C'est la vie.
Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High
I still don't understand why I think this album is so bad. It has something to do with wanting to throw something across the room every time I listen to it. But WHY? (The problem is to find out I'd need to listen to it again, and I haven't prepared myself for it yet.) Also recalls bad experiences WORKING A REAL JOB, which I've decided is NOT FOR ME. I temporarily have the privilege to call this a CHOICE and I have chosen to exercise it.
Hilary Duff - Dignity
I go all over the place with this one. The tracks I thought I didn't like are some of my favorites now -- "Burned" keeps getting better (esp. after I put it on a mix between "Open Toes" and "Spinnin' Around") and "Happy" is probably best. "Gypsy Woman" has faded as its !!! factor wore off (Churchill???) and "Stranger" just sounds friggin' weird now that I know it's about her dad. "Outside of You" sounds out of place, "Never Stop" still great, "With Love" actually one of the weaker tracks, "Dignity" still wonderful, but also still makes me hate Hilary a little. Which is fine because despite her autobiographical slant (or whatever), she still hasn't convinced me she's not a robot. (Did Vicki on Small Wonder ever brush her teeth?)
Jordan Pruitt - No Ordinary Girl
I listened to this twice and got no real feeling from it. She's an excellent singer, but so is Belinda (who at least has insane car crash videos) and Paula DeAnda (who at least has a Lil' Wayne cameo) and Jojo (who is pretty much the best anonymous "good singer" in teenpop) and a bunch of other ordinary girls. I like her ballad because it reminds me of the high school that only exists in the minds of middle schoolers. Along similar lines, I seem to remember her having a good song called "Teenager," which loses points for just making me want to listen to MCR's "Teenagers." EDIT: "Miss Popularity"(?) also a good one.
Kat McPhee - "Open Toes"
The only song I remember from her album. Another skilled anonopop singer. "Open Toes" is head and shoulders above everything else she's done, and I just realized the other day it was a Danja track. KUDOS KONSUMER-POP. EDIT: I remember several other of her songs in the comments.
Katy Rose - Candy Eyed
Goddamn this album is weird. I can't even figure out which track is weirdest. Kind of love it, though, would use the dance number toward the end ("Dancin' For") as a track on my upcoming CONFESSIONAL DANCE '07 mix except I can't imagine actually making this. [EDIT: Now working on this. Stay tuned.] If I did:
01. Veronicas - Hook Me Up
02. Britney - Piece of Me (hypocrisy!)
03. Ashley Tisdale - Not Like That
04. Vanessa Hudgens - Don't Talk
05. Keke Palmer - Game Song
06. The Pierces - Boring
07. Katy Rose - Dancin' For
08. Hilary Duff - Burned
09. Aly and AJ - Potential Break-Up Song
10. Rihanna - Question Existing
11. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
12. Linda Sundblad - Lose You
13. Lauryn Hill - Lose Myself
14. Miley Cyrus - Start All Over
Keke Palmer - So Uncool
Teenpop dark horse candidate for, uh, second or third best? "Game Song" has the best idea, but I like the music in "Music Box" (which has a bunch of terrible ideas, but kind of charmingly terrible -- "she cleans, she mops / the tears that drop" !!!! SHE GOT A JOB AS A JANITOR CLEANING UP HER OWN TEARS PEOPLE) and the sentiment in "Hood Anthem" and the good intentions of "Footwurkin'," which doesn't actually make me want to dance much. "Keep It Movin'" is currently on the Radio Disney charts! JUSTICE AT LAST. (Speaking of which, "D.A.N.C.E." counts as teenpop -- it was blaring outta my headphones one day and my friend John said "I know those are yours because you're listening to teenpop.")
Kelly Clarkson - My December
Kelly got a bum rap, but her album also wasn't as good as it needed to be for me to crusade for her. Weirdly, this was the post that made k-runk feel sorry for me (C: "What if someone called us a pair o' pathetic peripatetics?" H: "I've never heard of someone taking the time to rhyme weird insults." C: "But shouldn't we have a ready retort?"). I thought it was pretty good!
Lil' Mama - "Lip GLoss"
Miley Cyrus - Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus
See: Mostly Wanted. Depending on yr individual preferences and such, add a track or two (I don't like "Girl's Night Out" or "Nobody's Perfect").
My Chemical Romance - "Teenagers"
Scare the living shit out of me, too. Invoking trench coat mafia frivolously doesn't sit right with me, but neither did Eminem's Columbine reference, and that was closer and I got over it, and neither did Elephant, but that's because Gus Van Sant is an asshole. Gerard Way is just kind of aggressively clueless. I also should have voted this on my singles list. (#11A.)
Paramore - Riot!
Copy and pasting my Paramore qualms from an email to Jimmy Draper. Anyone who likes this band should try FLYLEAF, who are much better.
I've been resisting Paramore, and couldn't put my finger on why. I like their hooks, like their singer, kind of a lot. Not as much as I could, but enough to otherwise have no problem leading me to resist them...and then I realized that they're a slightly more sophisticated version of AVRIL LAVIGNE. The same competency bordering on occasional pop genius masquerading as depth. Key example is "Misery Business," which is Sk8er Boi. Not even "kind of similar" -- the premise is identical, and the fake "innocent" girl she steals from this guy could just has well have done ballet. And it similarly fails to explain why this girl is any BETTER than the first girl, meaning I don't care about her. And she wants me to think she's clever and/or "deep," which I think I resent a little.
But can't deny really good hooks and really good singing -- it's all the attitude that turns me off a little, I guess. (Would still easily make a top 50 or so albums, but not a my top 20.)
Skye Sweetnam - Sound Soldier
GAAAAAH I don't know. I still don't actually own this. Ross wrote a review of it that I agree with for the most part; in a blurb, its parts are better than the whole. I don't think I intensely dislike anything on it. But I do get an overall sense that Skye is stuck with more "talent" than she knows what to do with. Like the Matrix took a buffer to her and ended up rubbing off a lot of her charm. I don't think it's the songwriting -- I like that she's going socal and she's trying a non-lighter-waving Lindsay-ish ballad and some nu-metal and some Britneypop and some weirdly ancient-sounding hip-hop stuff. I like that she's working with major label talent and Tim Armstrong indiscriminately, and that she's basically touring clubs and middle schools, and that she has one ultra-high-gloss video and one ultra-lo-gloss video, and that they're both pretty great. I like a LOT about it. But I don't really like it, y'know? I wouldn't be concerned with it if her label hadn't just axed half of its roster and left her with a Canada-only release; and I also wouldn't be concerned if I knew that whatever she has from the Max/Luke sessions will be worth the wait (provided it ever surfaces and/or doesn't sound like "Girlfriend" grrrr). Not that a Max/Luke credit has done much for anyone lately (Amy Diamond will probably be fine).
Soulja Boy - Tellem.com
I've decided that this album is (1) annoying as all fuck and (2) pretty good. Would have been a good inclusion for my "Downgrade U" article. Still can't do the Soulja Boy dance :(.
Vanessa Hudgens - "Don't Talk"
Not much else to say, really. Best BABY V song ever by fifty miles. No, a hundred.
The Veronicas - Hook Me Up
Oh jeez, what do I say? The beats are too fast. STOP MAKING ME DANCE SO FAST. GAH. It's pretty good. I got nuthin' to say about this one, really, except I'm not obsessed with/losing sleep over it and I'm glad that this is the next single. Might be my favorite on the album.
Ignored due to extreme ambivalence: Bratz OST (look up Prima J and check out the weird-ass evolution of CLIQUE GIRLZ here); Corbin Bleu ("Deal with It" is the only one I like); the Rihanna/Amerie Wars, better chronicled here and here.
Haven't heard: Megan McCauley, Jordin Sparks ("Tattoo" v. meh), Vanessa Carlton, Jonas Brothers, High School Musical 2 <--also counts toward AMBIVALENCE, except I don't remember anything except the baseball song.
Oh wait, forgot to mention: MCFLY - "Transylvania" -- MY CHEMICAL ROOT BEER!
Edits/comments to follow probably. Editorials welcome below.
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