ABOUT THIS ALBUM
ARTIST: Jessica Simpson
TITLE: A Public Affair
RELEASE DATE: August 29, 2006
TRACKLIST
1 A Public Affair
2 You Spin Me Around (Like A Record)
3 B.O.Y.
4 If You Were Mine
5 Walk Around In A Circle
6 The Lover In Me
7 Swing With Me
8 Push Your Tush
9 Back To You
10 Between You & I
11 I Don't Want To Care
12 Fired Up
13 Let Him Fly
14 I Belong To Me (Bonus Track)
NEWS/REVIEWS
A Public Affair is a disco-studded, stunningly entertaining, 13-song slab of energetic white-girl pop. From the summer-fizzy first song and title track--which lifts, improbably, from both Madonna and the Supremes--Simpson tears out of the gate refusing to fall back on stale-sounding power ballads, something of a signature in the past. "You Spin Me Round" updates the Dead or Alive '80s hit; the vampy and innovative "B.O.Y." borrows from a vintage Cars track; and "Walkin' 'Round in a Circle," about as sleepy a track as you'll find here, seems to put a kind of pop spit-shine on a tune both Stevie Nicks and Ryan Adams popularized. Later tracks, including the excellent Louis Prima-inspired "Swing with Me" and the shockingly urban-sounding "Fired Up," bring Simpson's inner femme fatale to the fore. Let's hope it doesn't slink away anytime soon--other Simpson discs have been forgettable, but this is an affair to remember.
There are basically two ways to deal with a divorce in pop music: dig deep into your soul and pour it all out on the page (à la Blood on the Tracks), or treat it as sheer liberation (à la Back in the High Life). Perhaps it's only appropriate that the dissolution of the Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey marriage — one of the biggest tabloid stories of the 2000s, or at least 2006 — produced two wildly different records that nevertheless follow these blueprints to a tee. First, Nick delivered the mopey What's Left of Me, whose title pretty much gives away the game; he paints himself as the man wronged, unaware that he's coming across a bit like a simpering cuckold but clearly aware that he's placing all the blame on Jessica's shoulders, and even if she doesn't explicitly embrace that burden on her post-divorce platter, A Public Affair — whose title also nods at the hysterical gossip surrounding their separation — its devil-may-care vibe suggests that everything that's been said about her is indeed true. At the very least, she's put her marriage far, far behind her — according to the liner notes, some sister-bonding with Ashlee, where they cried and listened to Patty Griffin, did the trick (if only they were watching Kathy Griffin instead!) — and is out to have nothing but a good time. And that's what A Public Affair is: a party record, pure and simple. A full eight songs are finished by the time Jessica switches the tempo down a notch or two, and even then it's only for a few songs; of the 13 songs here, ten are designed either for the dancefloor or carefree sunny afternoons. Of those three slower songs, there are a few allusions to her breakup with Nick — on "I Don't Want to Care" she sings that she doesn't want to care about him and herself, and her version of Patty Griffin's "Let Him Fly" carries a certain meeting given the context — but they don't stick, since they're overwhelmed by the bright, gaudy retro-dance that dominates this album. In other words, it's the opposite of the turgid, moribund 2003 In This Skin, which was all mannered showbiz ballads, just like how 2001's Irresistible was the reverse of her overly calculated debut, but the difference is, A Public Affair is easily the strongest album she's ever made, powered by a couple of excellent singles in "A Public Affair" and "If You Were Mine." Respectively, they recycle Madonna's "Holiday" and Janet Jackson's "When I Think of You," but that's a good place for Jessica to be — breezy and tuneful, sunny and cheerful, they're songs that retain their sugar buzz after they've been played a dozen times. When she tries too hard — which she does a fair amount here: most horrendously on the stilted hip-hop of "Fired Up," which makes Britney's "Me Against the Music" seem graceful.
It comes as a bit of a shock that a good portion of A Public Affair is indeed pure cheerful fun, since she's only hit that on occasion in the past. And if A Public Affair doesn't all work — and even if her voice is suspiciously buried in the mix throughout — it nevertheless is by far the most entertaining album she's ever done and does indeed suggest that the divorce has loosened and liberated her.
COMMENTS
It just world premiered on ryan seacrest's show played i'm SO in love with it!:heart: It's very dancy, girly and light and upbeat, her best single ever!
Way better than 'Fired Up'. Cant wait for her album now!
One of her best singles yet!
