Amazingly, that long-to-materialize album (it's hard to call it highly anticipated) turns out to be shockingly good — and not just according to a grading curve for actors-turned-singers. After all, Paris was never an actress to begin with; she was a media creation who peddled the same image to a number of different formats, and it just so happens that her sexy, spoiled, shallow act is perfectly suited for bubblegum pop. Of course, it helps that she has a crack team of professionals supporting her on Paris, chief among them songwriter Kara DioGuardi and producer/co-writer Scott Storch, who is name-dropped on the first song "Turn It Up," and leaves a heavy imprint on the rest of the record producing just over half of it and serving as one of the executive producers along with Tom Whalley and Paris herself. They come up with a sound that's casually modern and retro with enough heft in its rhythms to sound good at clubs, yet it's designed to be heard outdoors on the sunniest day of the summer. This is exceedingly light music, as sweet and bubbly as a wine spritzer, yet it isn't so frothy that it floats away. Like the best lightweight pop, Paris retains its sense of fun through repeated listens, long past the point that the novelty of Paris Hilton releasing a good album has worn off. Make no mistake, Paris is a very good pop album, at times deliberately reminiscent of Blondie, Madonna, and Gwen Stefani, yet having its own distinct character — namely, Paris' persona, which is shamelessly shallow and devoid of any depth. Where that might be irritating within a movie or within pop culture at large, when placed in a shiny, hooky dance-pop album it works splendidly, particularly because the songs are strong and Storch and company know how to keep things light — and everybody involved knows that it's fun to play around with Paris' image, no matter if it's her murmuring "that's hot" at the beginning of the record or covering Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," or writing about her feud with Nicole Ritchie on the delightful "Jealousy." But for as much as Paris is about Paris, she doesn't necessarily stand out here; her voice — which is almost certainly auto-tuned and tweaked by a computer, yet it's nevertheless appealing, more so than Britney Spears' often awkward squawk — may blend into the production, yet that actually helps the recordings since it emphasizes the melodies above everything else. And there are some irresistible melodies here: the breezy "Stars Are Blind," the gilded rush of "I Want You" driven by a "Grease" sample, the sweet "Time After Time" rewrite "Heartbeat," and the great power pop of "Screwed," for starters.
Yes, there is no denying that this is a pure piece of product, but it is indeed pure as product. Paris makes no apologies for being mass-market pop, but everybody involved made sure that this was well-constructed mass-market pop. It may not bear the mark of an auteur the way Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics does, but it never feels tossed-off, and track-for-track it's more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too. It's easy to hate Paris Hilton — lord knows that she and her friends like Brandon Davis are walking advertisements against the repeal of the estate tax — but any pop fan who listens to Paris with an open mind will find that it's nothing but fun.
― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 22:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 22:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 00:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 00:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 00:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 01:02 (seventeen years ago) link
Almost certainly!
― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 06:15 (seventeen years ago) link
YA DONT SAY!
― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 06:50 (seventeen years ago) link
why?
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 07:27 (seventeen years ago) link
lex's rhetoric on this one has just been 'everything you think is bad, is actually good'. but the strongest assertions -- that the songwriting is top-hole, that paris's soul comes through blah-blah-rockist-blah, that she has a great popstar persona -- are just bollocks.
i don't see how the thematic breakdown ('her songs are about the search for Real Love!!' yeah and?) helps matters.
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 07:47 (seventeen years ago) link
being taken up with prom queen/princess cliches deep in your twenties is also not especially endearing.
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 08:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― rchinn (rchinn), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― zeus (zeus), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― darin (darin), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 23:08 (seventeen years ago) link
But it's way easier to be cynical and notice that everything about her vocal work is completely undistinguishable. She hired a hitmaker so she sounds like the rest of Storch's resume. B.F.D. I hear crap like this and kneel down at the altar of rockism with complete confidence.
― don weiner (don weiner), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 23:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― AleXTC (AleXTC), Thursday, 24 August 2006 09:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 24 August 2006 09:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link
but the point is that it IS paris hilton. it's a pop song so the person matters as much as the song itself!
― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:47 (seventeen years ago) link
-- Nathalie (stevi...), August 24th, 2006.
well yes. and it's paris hilton. so the hateful non-singing minor celebrity matters almost as much as the unobjectionable-but-hardly-outstanding lite-reggae track. fan-bloody-tastic.
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:52 (seventeen years ago) link
well similar songs got airplay when the name No Doubt was attached to them!
so the hateful non-singing minor celebrity
why is she hateful? i don't understand why paris hilton provokes so much ire compared with, oh, any other given popstar/entertainment sleb who get, if not admired, then not reviled.
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:59 (seventeen years ago) link
xpost
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:03 (seventeen years ago) link
despising poor people - i refer you to paris's own quote upthread re "the real me"
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link
There's also a private school/blowjob gag here but I can't be bothered to make it.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1572890,00.html
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:14 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link
the things she does are no more morally dubious than what, i dunno, jessica simpson or mariah carey or j-lo or britney have been said to have done - so i don't understand why people who aren't repulsed by them are repulsed by paris. it doesn't mean any of them are nice AND I WOULDN'T WANT THEM TO BE
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link
"I don't see why people loathe her and they don't loathe (list of pop starlets that people often say they loathe)!"
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link
I wonder if Lex is pooh-poohing Britney because she has been partially rehabilitated ("you know, "Toxic" is a really great song!).
Dan, Mariah didn't do stairs.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:37 (seventeen years ago) link
I think this is an important point - when those false-leaks were going around there seemed to be a lot of excitement over that Sweetbox song, "human sacrifice", which is strong/brash/angry (vulgar?), one set of paris-attributes; instead we ended up with this insipid, sweet, languid thing, which also fits the 'paris' image but from a completely different direction.
― stop moving. (cis), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Bashment Jakes (Enrique), Thursday, 24 August 2006 12:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 24 August 2006 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link