I Am Me

10/31/2005 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Mike Lipton

If you follow those pop culture sorts of things, you’ll recall it was just a year ago that TV-pop-rock maven Ashlee Simpson was unceremoniously busted for lip-synching on Saturday Night Live. (Simpson’s “Jan & Dean” occurred when her drummer cued up the wrong track - which happened to contain a pre-recorded vocal.) The follow-up to that rather infectious (and No. 1) debut takes a left turn, embracing both a darker image and sound. While the themes remain pure pop--lifestyle/relationship commentaries like the angular rock of “Boyfriend” and the revved-up Blondie wannabe-anthem “In Another Life”--the music apes the easily digestible sound of the ’80s minus any of its emotion. With the exception of tracks like the robotic dance catastrophe “ L.O.V.E.,” and the contrived “Burnin’ Up,” the songs aren’t all that bad--“Beautifully Broken” works in a production-run sort of way, bringing to mind any number of now-forgotten singers before her, while “Eyes Wide Open” works up a little maelstrom of energy musically and vocally, making it the disc’s most fully realized effort. Other winners include “Dancing Alone,” a buoyant and memorable pop tune, and the driving title track. If “deep thoughts” aren’t one of your priorities, “I Am Me” should suit you just fine. While it may have loftier pretensions, the music is disposable--if not innocuous--which seems to suit Simpson’s real-life persona to a “T.”