Is there any television network as shameless as Disney Channel? When they're not delivering high-fructose TV series about pop stars and fancy hotels, they inadvertantly force their actors to become pop stars. Ashley Tisdale is such a star, as with all of the Disney alums before her, a debut album was inevitable. No doubt High School Musical gave her the push she needed, but what was going to be a true test of her talent was the ability to define herself outside of Sharpay Evans and reveal Ashley Tisdale, the person. With expert pop songwriters behind her, she went into the studio and created "Headstrong", a title that was meant to describe her true persona, and indeed this album follows through on that promise.
You see, Ashley has something that her predecessors didn't: age. At twenty-two years old, she knows her identity, and she already has a palpable sense of her musical persona as well. So she doesn't hesitate, she dives right in to her music, starting the album with an intro containing a mash-up of all songs found on the disc. This stellar start leads right into "So Much for You" with no stutter, and all the way through "Not Like That", the momentum is super-charged and returns us to the good ol' days of the 90s, when ex-Mouseketeers Britney and Christina were atop the charts. In fact, that seems to be Ashley's niche, the decade she grew up in and discovered herself. The influences are very apparent in "Going Crazy" (which will definitely bring you back to "(You Drive Me) Crazy" by Britney), and "Love Me For Me", one of the two ballads here (the other being "Suddenly") that works with the rest of the songs, is covered with Christina's teeny-bop debut image. And while she pays homage to her Disney ancestors, the best tracks (consequently titled bonus tracks, most likely because they are the less Disney-fied songs on this entire set) come at the end. The album's standard closing track "Suddenly" is also a warm and sublime ending to "Headstrong", but "Who I Am" and "It's Life" wrap up the album in true Ashley fashion. Both tracks are stellar dance numbers whose hooks are instantenous. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for the rest of the album, as it is weighed down mainly because of its mopey ballads. And as they are scattered throughout the tracks, "Headstrong" becomes calculated and affected instead of genuine. Disney-fied pop will always be near the surface, and even a person as confident as Ashley cannot completely outshine the hand that has fed her career. But still, as uneven as this album can get, it's still as "Headstrong" as it promises. The dance numbers are catchy -- The overall flow is consistent -- The songwriting is impressively strong for a Disney debut, and is the best album from a Disney alum since Lindsay Lohan's 2004 debut.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Intro 2. So Much for You 3. He Said She Said
4. Be Good to Me 5. Not Like That 6. Unlove You
7. Positivity 8. Love Me for Me 9. Going Crazy
10. Over It 11. Don’t Touch (The Zoom Song)
12. We’ll be Together 13. Headstrong 14. Suddenly
15. Who I Am 16. It’s Life
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