Ashley Tisdale Albums (2)
'Guilty Pleasure'
Release Date 6/16/2009
Tracks 14
Label Warner Bros.
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Graduated from High School Musical and on the eve of her 24th birthday, Ashley Tisdale is ready to act like an adult, or at least not like a tween, on her second album, Guilty Pleasure. The title is a giveaway to Ashley's pop aspirations, the cover an indication of her Britney Blackout makeover, the album a curious hodge-podge of every young starlet of the last few years of the decade, both big and small, good and bad. Britney, in her post-K-Fed incarnation, is naturally at the foundation, but Ashley also incorporates Ashlee Simpson's junkie-wannabe rock, Katy Perry's provocative stomp, Fergie's trashy club crawl, some of Christina's theatricality, and Kelly Clarkson's spunk plus, most bizarrely, a bit of Lindsay Lohan's soul-baring second album on "How Do You Love Someone," a song that lashes out at distant dysfunctional parents, a song so atypically ugly it stops the album dead. That is, until the realization flashes that this, like so much in Tisdale's career, is a careful pose from a showbiz kid who relishes performing so much she'll try anything just along as she can stay on the stage. That attitude can be a little grating in High School Musical, because it was amplified in the character of Sharpay Evans, but here it largely works because her total commitment to the game can result in some truly fun disposable pop. Not everything works -- Tisdale isn't convincing when she tries to deal in either pain or carnality, but when she sticks to the surface, she makes sure that Guilty Pleasure lives up to its title. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The High School Musical soundtrack was so popular that it was inevitable that all of the stars of the Disney Channel phenomenon would release albums of their own. Ashlely Tisdale, who played Sharpay Evans, the queen of her high school's theater department, became the first female artist to debut with two singles on Billboard's Hot 100 at the same time, so expectations were high for Headstrong, her first post-High School Musical work. Unfortunately, Tisdale had more character singing in character as Sharpay: her voice is pleasant enough, but it's not especially distinctive, and she's not helped by a batch of songs that aren't nearly as charming as High School Musical's tunes. Attempting to give Tisdale an identity outside of High School Musical, Headstrong's sound is much more mature than the soundtrack's teen pop-meets-musicals vibe, incorporating heavy hip-hop beats, dancehall's call-and-response, Middle Eastern elements, and other mid-2000s pop music trends into the Disney pop sound. "Positivity"'s syncopated beats and old-school synths make it one of the best examples of this approach, and one of the best songs on the album. Gwen Stefani's hip-pop is another major influence, especially on "Headstrong" itself, which mixes and matches slinky verses with cheerleadery, "Hollaback Girl" choruses. At times, Headstrong's songs reflect that Tisdale is a little older than some of her Radio Disney peers, but at other times that fact is ignored: "He Said She Said" features a hard-hitting beat and backing vocals that sound like Kidz Bop; "Not Like That" has Tisdale singing, "I'm the kind of chick that hits spots/In my flip-flops/Listenin' to hip-hop." A few straightforwardly catchy tracks make up for missteps like the mopey ballad "Unlove You" and "Suddenly," which seems to be about Tisdale discovering her own stardom. "Goin' Crazy" sounds a lot like Britney Spears' "Drive Me Crazy," and "Over It" is a pretty typical angry breakup song, but they both deliver some much-needed hooks. Headstrong isn't as winning as either High School Musical or Hannah Montana, which is a little surprising considering the high-profile songwriters and producers involved (Diane Warren, Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, Nicolas Molinder, Joacim Persson, and Guy Roche, to name a few). However, it's fine for anyone who just wants to hear more of Ashley Tisdale's -- and not Sharpay Evans' -- singing. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
