For some new artists, getting noticed is an exercise in perseverance and grave determination. For Ashlee Simpson, fame was a walk in the park under the shade of her sister's success and her father's tutelage. The 21-year-old artist celebrated both a birthday this month and the release of her second album, I Am Me, on her father's new label, Papa Joe Records, a subset of Geffen Records.
On her first album, Simpson attempted to break the pop mold and follow the equation of singers like Avril Lavinge and Fefe Dobson: punk rock clothes + dyed hair + pop songs with rock undertones = success. The idea is to be less pop tart and more pop rocker. Indeed, this equation of triple performance seemed to work as her debut achieved great popularity among teeny-boppers. With her latest release, Simpson tries to follow the same formula, but her efforts fall short as she assumes the role of pop princess, resisting the categories of tart and rocker.
I Am Me is a formulaic record with lyrics and melodies that follow the pop-princess equation. Most, if not all of the songs seem to be about her relationships, including, but not limited to, guys. The opening track refers to an occurrence when Simpson was accused of stealing a girl's boyfriend, while other tracks center around Simpson's dream man.
Behind the repetitive vocals and vapid words are standard pop melodies. Constant guitar and heavy percussion are used to give most of the tracks a dance feel. Three of the tracks, "LOVE," "Dancing Alone" and "Burnin' Up" rely more heavily on the use of electronic instrumentation than guitar. These are the songs that stand out the most and give Simpson's second album specks of individualism.
Unlike those three, the title track, with its excessive guitars and percussion, is in the same vein as the other songs. "I Am Me" acts as a double agent by continuing the album's trend about boys and relationships as well as attacking the music industry. The song centers around Simpson stating, "I am me and I won't change for anyone/Me and I won't change for anyone" but one has to wonder if she has changed, at least musically.
Simpson wants to be different from your run-of-the-mill pop star, but despite her proclamations, she is less herself and more an attempted ideal of the pop world. I Am Me is not a stand-out pop record. Repetitive lyrics and too much guitar cause the songs to bleed into each other. The record in its entirety is quite short and leaves you feeling as if you bought a CD of variations on a theme instead of a record with 11 different tracks. Assuming that Ms. Simpson doesn't embarrass herself on SNL again with a performance from this album, I Am Me will not make this pop star shine any brighter.
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