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Review: Jack Foley
THERE seems to be a growing trend for film stars to try their
hand at singing and vice versa.
Lindsay Lohan (of Mean
Girls/Freaky Friday
fame) is the latest to try to combine acting with singing and
her album, Speak, is a catchy but throwaway affair that
struggles to maintain an identity of its own.
Perhaps this is because Lohan, the actress, is trying merely
to emulate her musical influences, which would appear to reside
in the Avril Lavigne/Ashlee
Simpson neighbourhood of pretty girls with guitars.
Or maybe it's because she's stretching herself a little too thin,
given her busy filming schedule.
That said, Speak isn't a bad listen, merely an over-familiar
one.
Tracks such as First, Symptoms of You, Disconnected
and Over all sound ok in small doses, yet they bear an
uncanny resemblance to the aforementioned likes of Lavigne, Simpson
and even Natalie Imbruglia.
Lohan does, at least, try to mix this up with some tentative
steps into R&B territory, but tracks such as To Know Your
Name probably rate among the weakest efforts on the album
and seem ill-advised - as though Lohan might be trying to have
her cake and eat it!
Incredibly, the album has already sold over 1.5 million copies
in the US, where Lohan is an A-list actress who can command $7
million per movie - but that is probably more about the dedication
of her fans that it is any real talent.
She is, however, signed to Tommy Mottola's new label, Casablanca
(through Universal), and is clearly being groomed to follow in
the footsteps of previous Mottola charges such as Mariah Carey
and Jennifer Lopez.
But her sound will probably struggle to make as big an impression
in the UK marketplace, where Lohan is lesser known.
Of the worthwhile tracks, First is a suitably upbeat
slice of pop-rock that sets Lohan's stall out early, while Symptoms
of You contains a cheesey fun courtesy of groan-inducing
lyrics such as 'I'm not ill, I don't need to take a pill, to fix
what you do, cure can't come through, cause baby all I do is suffer
from the symptoms of you'. It's the kind of album filler a better
band like Third Eye Blind might put out.
Forthcoming single, Over, is also ok, courtesy of a
catchy chorus and some fairly jangling guitars, but you just can't
escape the overall impression that Lohan is writing music with
her own film soundtracks in mind.
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Track listing:
1. First
2. Nobody 'Til You
3. Symptoms Of You
4. Speak
5. Over
6. Something I Never Had
7. Anything But Me
8. Disconnected
9. To Know Your Name
10. Very Last Moment In Time
11. Magnet
12. Rumours (UK bonus track)
13. Rumours (Full Phatt Remix - UK bonus track)
14. Rumours (Video)
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