Lopez Blogs

Little Jesse McCartney is leaving his Summerland behind and getting his groove on Shayne Ward styl-ee. And considering how marvelous Shayne's Breathless album is that is no bad thing. Jesse has got rid of his school boy floppy fringe, pimped out his snazzy wardrobe and produced an album that embraces a number of genres. And much like Shayne, he has chosen straight up pop, r'n'b and polished dance tunes to fill out his third solo effort. And depending on how much you like that style of music will dictate how well you love this album. For me, it's almost a smash through and through...

Let's deal with PopJesse first. By now everyone should know the reggae tinged Leaving single - not a million miles from If That's Ok With You and quite deservedly sitting high on the Billboard 100. It's the perfect song to welcome in the summer and much like ITOKWY it actually improves with repeated listening. It positively osmozes itself into your pores and sweats right back out of you. How Do You Sleep is a perky little ditty, light on production and the backing sounds like something S/A/W might have knocked up while they were keeping Kylie waiting. It's not an out and out amazing song, but it's pleasant enough in a sort of frothy forgettable way. My Baby sounds like the beepy beginning bits have been nicked from We Built This City and is a classic example of Jesse using hideous lyrics ~ "Got to make it up baby, want to make it up baby, my baby". V.O.M.I.T. Dazpecs and I tried calling each other baby once, but we couldn't quite pull it off and it seemed lurid and wrong after we googled a nice pampered spa weekend and got shown all sorts of other adult type pampering efforts which i have now purged from my mind. But i digress... Horribly cheesy lyrics aside, the song has a great chorus and is sneakily catchy i.e. on first listen it doesn't seem that great but then you find yourself humming it while peeing at work...

SleekPop/DancePop Jesse kicks off with what I'm pretty sure is a remake of One Republic's Apologise. It's Over is his stab at a more adult market (perhaps the Departure from his teens the album title refers to?) and it works well enough, but pales next to Apologise. Told You So is the "big ballad" for the album and it's a doozy. More of a midtempo jam (a la Shaynes should-have-been-a-single Melt The Snow), Jesse is in fine voice, there are subtle strings behind the hypnotic drum beat and this had better be a single or I will be well peeved. Relapse and Running are decent enough pop tunes, but it's Freaky that takes Jesse out of his comfort zone and nearly (but not quite) matches the genius of Daddy's Little Girl with a pulsating drum beat and insiduous dance groove and funky sound effects. Quite good.

Finally, there is what turned out to be least fave element of Shayne Ward's album - the rnb tinged section. However, Jesse is onto a total winner with most his tracks. On first listen i absolutely detested Rock You but i'm warming to it everso slightly now. Into Ya is another hideously lyriced song (if you let me put a little into ya?! Do those lines ever work) - but again forgiveable for being a smooth electro-rnb groove that works on every level. Apart from lyrically. Final song, Not Your Enemy works well with a nice string quartet and heavy piano tinkling that is probably closest to Bleeding Love on the album (his demo version of it works very well though) and if big enough a hit, will be all over Idol audition shows next year.

• Stand out tracks (Jesse): Leaving; Not Your Enemy; Freaky; Told You So
• Stand out tracks (Ryan): In Between Lights; Rise; How Bout Tonight
• Winner of the album smackdown? Jesse McCartney for pumping more joy and pop aceness into his tunes...