After-School Special: Ashley Tisdale, 'Guilty Pleasure'

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ASHLEY TISDALE would like you to know that she's not Sharpay Evans, her character in the "High School Musical" series. She's willing to make physical changes to convey this distinction, undergoing plastic surgery (to correct a deviated septum, naturally), a brunette dye job and a no doubt painful transition to dressing in neutral colors. By calling her album "Guilty Pleasure," Tisdale goes so far as to signal that she realizes her henceforth Disney-centric career may be embarrassing to potential listeners.

So what is Tisdale offering up instead of her devious high school diva persona? Two parts Kelly Clarkson relatable pop-rock, one part Avril Lavigne faux rebellion and a few provocative Britney-esque dance tracks. Like Tisdale's makeover, these components are far from subtle. Opening track "Acting Out" is an explicit rejection of her previous persona, boasting lyrics like "Underneath it all I was craving to be wild" and "I'ma show you what I'm talking 'bout/ It's another side of me, I'm rocking out." It's not exactly Joan Jett, but between the overt lyrics and churning guitars Tisdale at least makes a convincing case for "Guilty Pleasure" as a departure from her tween-oriented musical efforts.

"Masquerade" is clearly intended as a "Womanizer"-style techno vamp, but lacking that song's super-repetitive chorus it's not as playful or as catchy as the Britney single. Nonetheless, if the masked ball becomes an annual "Gossip Girl" tradition, this song is a soundtrack shoo-in.

"Crank It Up" is the other conspicuous attempt at a racy dance song, and while the lyrics are predictably silly, Tisdale actually acquits herself reasonably well at both breathy dance vocals and trading lines with a guest rapper. Ashley Tisdale playing in a club still seems an unlikely proposition, but "Crank It Up" could suffice as a getting-ready-to-go-out track, if you couldn't locate your Pink CD under a pile of cosmetics or something.

Tisdale gets a bit heavy-handed with the technological references late in the album. Probably either "Erase and Rewind" or "Delete You" would have been sufficient evocation of voice mail/Facebook-inspired emotional turmoil. The Clarkson-esque "Erase and Rewind" is clearly the stronger of the two — while the acoustic-intro-breaking-into-big-chorus structure may not be original, it retains some appeal. However, "Delete You" may be a more original concoction, including disconcerting touches like random vocoder blips over an acoustic guitar break and some strangely processed backing vocals. Parents of impressionable teen daters take note: both "Delete You" and the video for first single "It's Alright, It's OK" (watch it below) both seem to advocate material destruction in the wake of painful breakups.

For an album by a Disney alumna, "Guilty Pleasure" lives up to the title's promise well enough, if it is predictably a bit lacking in coherent personality. Sixteen tracks prove to be a bit much — Ashley Tisdale doesn't have quite that much to say. Most of these songs are about being yourself, minor boy angst, or liberating yourself from boy angst so you can better be yourself. Not a lot of ground to cover there.

Written by Express contributor Meg Zamula
Photo by Hermann J. Knippertz/AP; Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images