Amazon.co.uk Review
Okay, it's happened. Jessica Andrews, the teen sweetheart who steered clear of diva aspirations and bombastic production on her 1999 debut,
Heart Shaped World, has succumbed. No, she's not dead. She's just artistically challenged, thanks to Byron Gallimore, the man who pushed Faith Hill into megawatt success. Now she's warbling for the soundtrack of
Dawson's Creek (the album-closing "Show Me Heaven"), and largely mining the same musical wasteland as LeAnn Rimes. Gone is the refreshing innocence, soulfulness, and quiet charm of her first album, replaced by the manufactured emotions and aerobicised lyrics of L.A. pop. Example? How about "Uh uh, uh uh uh uh," from "I Don't Like Anyone"? That said, if generic, bouncy pop is your thing--especially when it's performed by someone who just got her driver's license--you're gonna eat this one with a big spoon.
--Alanna Nash
CD Description
In case you've been wondering what ever happened to New Wave one-hit wonder Martin "The Salt in My Tears" Briley, here's an album that answers the question. He's alive and well inNashville and writing songs ("I Don't Like Anyone") for 17-year old Jessica Andrews, country music's overdue answer to Britney Spears.
Actually, Andrews' sophomore album is only nominally country. The occasional twang in the vocals (which are wise beyond the singer's tender years) or mandolin lick notwithstanding, WHO I AM is distinguishable from Spears-style pop only by the lack of a certain level of lyrical double entendre sexual innuendo. Good clean fun, in other words, and first rate commercial radio fare--the kind of music that gives bubblegum a good name.