Jessica Simpson - Do You Know Review

After she scored nine pop hits between 1999 and 2006, top 40 radio gave Jessica Simpson the heave-ho. Now the singer has shifted formats to country, which she insists is an organic fit, given her Texas roots —not to mention her film role as Daisy Duke in 2005's "The Dukes of Hazzard." Full-length foray "Do You Know" is a credible transition, beginning with No. 18 launch single "Come On Over," which convinced programmers that there's twang in Simpson's torch. She aligns with Grammy Award-winning producers Brett James—an ideal fit via collaborations with Martina McBride and Carrie Underwood—and John Shanks, who has worked with, well, everyone. Despite detractors, Simpson remains a gifted vocalist who delivers on most every cut....full text After a painful public divorce and a dwindling Q Score, where else would Jessica Simpson turn except to country music, a genre built around heartache and redemption?

Simpson's journey to Nashville is certainly a departure from the teen pop that made her famous. Yet despite waves of pedal steel guitar and the occasional hint of fiddle or mandolin, her latest owes just as much to rock, thanks to blustery electric guitar fills and downhearted piano. No matter: these songs are fine, if unexciting, vehicles for her voice....full text The pleasant surprise here is that she's co-written several songs that do indeed probe beneath the cover-girl, tabloid-ready surface of her life.

"Sipping on History," credited to Simpson, Hillary Lindsey and Luke Laird, mourns a lifelong might-have-been romance: "I could've been your June Carter Cash/Waltzed right along side you." "Still Beautiful," by Simpson and the album's co-producers, John Shanks and Brett James, acknowledges the downs in life as necessary to personal growth. Simpson doesn't exhibit much of a gift for vocal sculpting in this material, and Shanks and James don't help much by often burying her voice in over-the-top production....full text