Album Assessment: Smackdown 1: Jesse vs Ryan

Little Jesse McCartney is leaving his Summerland behind and getting his groove on Shayne Ward styl-ee. And considering how marvelous Shayne's Breathless album is that is no bad thing. Jesse has got rid of his school boy floppy fringe, pimped out his snazzy wardrobe and produced an album that embraces a number of genres. And much like Shayne, he has chosen straight up pop, r'n'b and polished dance tunes to fill out his third solo effort. And depending on how much you like that style of music will dictate how well you love this album. For me, it's almost a smash through and through...

Let's deal with PopJesse first. By now everyone should know the reggae tinged Leaving single - not a million miles from If That's Ok With You and quite deservedly sitting high on the Billboard 100. It's the perfect song to welcome in the summer and much like ITOKWY it actually improves with repeated listening. It positively osmozes itself into your pores and sweats right back out of you. How Do You Sleep is a perky little ditty, light on production and the backing sounds like something S/A/W might have knocked up while they were keeping Kylie waiting. It's not an out and out amazing song, but it's pleasant enough in a sort of frothy forgettable way. My Baby sounds like the beepy beginning bits have been nicked from We Built This City and is a classic example of Jesse using hideous lyrics ~ "Got to make it up baby, want to make it up baby, my baby". V.O.M.I.T. Dazpecs and I tried calling each other baby once, but we couldn't quite pull it off and it seemed lurid and wrong after we googled a nice pampered spa weekend and got shown all sorts of other adult type pampering efforts which i have now purged from my mind. But i digress... Horribly cheesy lyrics aside, the song has a great chorus and is sneakily catchy i.e. on first listen it doesn't seem that great but then you find yourself humming it while peeing at work...

SleekPop/DancePop Jesse kicks off with what I'm pretty sure is a remake of One Republic's Apologise. It's Over is his stab at a more adult market (perhaps the Departure from his teens the album title refers to?) and it works well enough, but pales next to Apologise. Told You So is the "big ballad" for the album and it's a doozy. More of a midtempo jam (a la Shaynes should-have-been-a-single Melt The Snow), Jesse is in fine voice, there are subtle strings behind the hypnotic drum beat and this had better be a single or I will be well peeved. Relapse and Running are decent enough pop tunes, but it's Freaky that takes Jesse out of his comfort zone and nearly (but not quite) matches the genius of Daddy's Little Girl with a pulsating drum beat and insiduous dance groove and funky sound effects. Quite good.

Finally, there is what turned out to be least fave element of Shayne Ward's album - the rnb tinged section. However, Jesse is onto a total winner with most his tracks. On first listen i absolutely detested Rock You but i'm warming to it everso slightly now. Into Ya is another hideously lyriced song (if you let me put a little into ya?! Do those lines ever work) - but again forgiveable for being a smooth electro-rnb groove that works on every level. Apart from lyrically. Final song, Not Your Enemy works well with a nice string quartet and heavy piano tinkling that is probably closest to Bleeding Love on the album (his demo version of it works very well though) and if big enough a hit, will be all over Idol audition shows next year.

Overall, not a perfect album - Make Up is a disaster, perhaps vying with Kanye's rap in Madonna's The Beat Goes On, for worst lyrics of the year (I pity the poor girl/drag queen/emo dude he is singing it to!) - but definitely very enjoyable and a nice cohesive effort inspite of the number of styles showcased.

Whereas Jesse embraces his pop roots and builds on them, Ryan Cabrera is hellbent on letting everyone know he is a serious artist now. I'm not sure what that godawful hair style has to do with being a serious musician (I have horrible visions of David Archuleta looking like this in 5 years time), but when he's not trying to show you that he can play guitar, his album "The Moon Under Water" is a pretty decent, if not outstanding or particularly orignal, effort. The lead off track In Between Lights is a great little pop-rocker and the album succeeds most when it pursues that train of thought. Enemies is almost McFly worthy (though to be fair b-side McFly), while Say has a brilliant pop intro that gets one all excited before totally failing to deliver a killer chorus. It's hard to describe what's wrong with the chorus - it's just that the intro and first verse are so perfectly pop, the chorus doesn't seem to do the song justice. He goes a bit Jason Mraz meets Death Cab 4 Cutie on Rise (The Dog Barks) which has some very elegant piano and a decent vocal and is stand out enough that it stops the inoffensive pop rock blurring all into one. The other standout is the quite Dashboard Confessional-esque How Bout Tonight which again is different enough that it's charming delivery and dreamy chorus work rather well. Again, overall it's a solid set if not particularly original - but I can hardly use that as a criticism when I used it as a compliment for Jesse!

• Stand out tracks (Jesse): Leaving; Not Your Enemy; Freaky; Told You So
• Stand out tracks (Ryan): In Between Lights; Rise; How Bout Tonight
• Winner of the album smackdown? Jesse McCartney for pumping more joy and pop aceness into his tunes...

DISHONOURABLE MENTION:

I absolutely could not bring myself to review Clay's album - i have had the misfortune of listening to it once. That was enough - the lead off single is the most cloying, manipulative emotional piece of crap I've heard in ages. I'll probably love it by Friday!