A Little More Personal (Raw)

On her second full-length album, Lindsay Lohan tries to leave her Disney image behind for good. And what better way to do it than by starting off with the stark "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)," in which the singer wrestles with her stormy relationship with her felonious father? Lohan Sr. also is the object of the tortured "My Innocence" (as in, Dad, you took it away.) But the best tracks here are the ones on which Lohan Jr. spares us the angsty therapy and delivers tuneful pop-rock. Sure, the kind of rousing mega-chorus used on "Black Hole" has already been heard--to greater effect--in Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," but it's still nifty. Elsewhere, "A Little More Personal" begins with Lohan talking about how talking at the start of a song is "rad," but then it turns into a very Cars-like tune--and it's hard to think of a catchier band than the Cars. No wonder it all sounds so impressively slick: For this transitional album, Lohan has surrounded herself with a team of pros--Kara DioGuardi (who's also written for Lohan rivals Ashlee Simpson and Hilary Duff, and coauthored 9 of the 12 songs here), power-popster Butch Walker, and former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody. The first two also put their producing stamp on a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" that's even more upbeat than the original, while Moody applied his tech skills on the other cover, Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen." Moody particularly shines on "Fastlane," however, a super-catchy number that's one of four for which Lohan gets a songwriting credit. Has she grown up? Maybe not entirely yet, but Lohan is showing the promise of an honorable mainstream career. --Elisabeth Vincentelli  more