It is strangely paradoxical that Ashley Tisdale is both incredibly sexy and part of the Disney marketing machine aimed at tweens. In 2008, she joined the Disney Channel’s youth-oriented programming lineup as a singer and actress. She is probably best known for playing spoiled rich girl Sharpay Evans in High School Musical.
As trashy as it may seem to note Tisdale’s ridiculous sex appeal, her new album, Guilty Pleasure, shows her letting go of her teeny-bopper image… at least a little.
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On Guilty Pleasure, her second studio album, she delivers an undeniably infectious pop-rock sound. Pat Benatar and Katy Perry are two of Tisdale’s inspirations, and she draws from those influences much more often than those from her contemporaries like Miley Cyrus. The album lacks Benatar’s ruggedness and Perry’s artistic/indie sensibilities, though, but it has plenty of pop hooks and a surprising edge.
The song Hot Mess is about Tisdale waking up after spending the night with a bad boy with less clothing than she had on the night before. There is also a song about living with separated parents, How Do You Love Someone, which laments the hardships of such a situation.
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A radio-friendly single, It’s Alright, It’s OK, opens the album. While there are some songs with obvious top40 appeal — Erase and Rewind and Me Without You, to name two — there are also some definite misses — Hair is one of them.
When conveying her honest, albeit surface-level, self, Tisdale is at her best. The edgy appeal of some tracks only complements this effort.
Guilty Pleasure is a mostly enjoyable serving of pop-diva-in-training that should satisfy her young fans and maybe raise an eyebrow or two among their parents.
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