By It is hard to ignore a good pop album. There is just something about a song’s danceability that brings out the best moods and moves in a person. Most of these albums, however, are dragged down by the ballads usually scattered throughout. This is the case with Ashley Tisdale’s first solo release, “Headstrong.”
Does her name ring a bell? Most people know Tisdale from Disney hits like “High School Musical” and “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.” She takes a break from her tween-suitable characters on television to deliver a little more of a sexy sound on the album.
She’s had a lot of help from heavy-hitters in songwriting and production, and it shows. The Matrix (credits include Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne), Scott Storch (Usher, Chris Brown), Kara DioGuardi (Gwen Stefani, Ashlee Simpson), Shelly Pieken and Guy Roche (Christina Aguilera), and Adam and Nikki Anders (Backstreet Boys, Sheryl Crow) all pitch in to make sure that parents and older siblings with sophisticated musical taste will not be able to get these songs out of their heads.
“Don’t Touch (The Zoom Song)” is dance floor gold, with a dash of women-empowering lyrics to an ’80s-style beat. “So Much for You” and “Over It” channel pop queen Britney Spears with Tisdale’s husky voice.
Tisdale hits the right note with the out-of-this-world song “Not Like That.” The up-tempo number features clap-along beats, white girl rhymes and lyrics every girl who has ever been to a club can relate to: “All the girls in the club got their eyes on me/I can tell by their look that they want to be/Hot, hot, hot like that/But it’s not, not, no, it’s not like that.”
The album’s ballads fail, though. Any “Musical” fan knows that Tisdale can belt out notes, but this is not apparent on the album. In “I Will Be Me” and “It’s Life,” her voice comes across as forced, breathy and unbelievable when she sings the lyrics “I will be me, this I know for sure.” Although the album fails in places, it is a worthy attempt by an up-and-coming pop artist to please her audience. So import some of the songs into your iPod and give it a dance.
