My Thoughts~

I may no longer be a teenager, but I really don't think it matters how old you are when it comes to appreciating music. I found that this album is a wonderful effort by someone new to music world. Sure, Ashlee Simpson has been around for a while: dancing with her sister, Jessica, for three years, then appearing in movies, and finally finding her own place on the WB show, 7th Heaven. But the music world is totally different from all of that. It's a true testament to how hard working she really is. A lot of people will say that she is only around because of her sister, but if you think about it, Jessica wasn't all that popular either before she got her own MTV show, The Newlyweds, and Ashlee had already broken out into her own by then. She has the integrity of someone much older than her and the talent to write her own songs, which is very important nowadays for new artists.
Her first effort is surprisingly heartfelt and you can see her different sides through each song. There is something for everyone here; the rockier title track, Autobiography, is all about her and her struggle to accept herself and how she wants others to accept her too; the (always gotta be there) ballad about love, Love Makes the World Go Round; and the more sexual song, La La, which shows that no matter how old you are, sexual awakening is always just around the corner. Unreachable, a song she wrote about a bad break up, showcases how she can use her own experiences to write a great song. She sings of a love gone wrong. She gives all she has, but he just doesn't care enough to do anything other than push her love away. Shadow, which she wrote about her relationship to her sister is sweet and shows her extreme sensitive side and really captures the reality of being the younger sibling. The insecurities of growing up with a beautiful, popular, and seemingly perfect sister are captured perfectly on this track. The last song on her album, Undiscovered, is a sweet song about the pains of being in love with someone who doesn't give as much as they take. Her first single, Pieces of Me, is a sweet little ditty about how no matter how bad a day may have been, your real friends will always be there for you; a message that the teens of this day and age really need to take heed of. She seems truly sincere on her album and wants people to understand her.
Despite the bad reviews that are inevitable in this world of jaded critics who don't seem to understand that artists like Ashlee are not targeted for their old fogy brains, Ashlee Simpson's first effort is something that I think her target audience will surely enjoy regardless of what anyone else says. She already has a tremendous following that will follow her to the ends of the earth if that's what she wants. And in the complete scheme of things, the fans are who really matter, not the people who get the CD for free and write nasty things just to get attention. And in the end, Ashlee will be the one who comes out on top because she, herself, knows that the fans are the ones who will be there for her.