A Little More Personal (Raw)

Lindsay Lohan clearly spells out her ambition in the title to her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw) -- she's going to shed the glitzy trappings of her debut, Speak, and dig down deep in her heart, letting feelings flood onto the page. And, for better and worse, that's exactly what she does, nowhere more explicitly than the opening track (and lead single), "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)," where she rails against her absentee father, whose transgressions and addictions have been gleefully chronicled by the tabloids. It's a bracing minor-key assault that's honest to a fault, setting the tone for the rest of the album with its somber, self-conscious confession. A heavily stylized Strum und Drang hangs over the album, seeping into the purportedly lighter moments; for example, a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" that arrives after "Confessions of a Broken Heart" reads more as another plea to her dad than as celebration of an unrequited crush. The compulsion to sound serious and mature did no favors for Lohan nemesis Ashlee Simpson's I Am Me, but A Little More Personal (Raw) is a better record than that due to Lohan's sense of conviction -- she really means it, man, when she sings about her father, or when she sings about alienation and heartbreak, and this emotional investment when married to the duly professional, straight-ahead songcraft of her collaborators makes for interesting listening. That's not the same thing as fun, and with so much glossy gloom it becomes hard not to marvel at the fact that Lindsay is expending so much energy on confessing matters that are already part of the public record. At the same time, this knowledge helps Lindsay's teenage angst seem more genuine than Ashlee's on I Am Me, and even if A Little More Personal (Raw) is less than totally successful, it is an intriguing mash-up of heart and commerce. And it does suggest one thing that Speak never did: Lindsay Lohan may have an artistic vision as a recording artist, which is indeed a huge step forward. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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