Do You Know (CD - 2008)

Personnel: John Shanks (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass instrument); Ilya Toshinsky, Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar); Troy Lancaster, Tom Bukovac (electric guitar); Mike Johnson (pedal steel guitar); Jonathan Yudkin (mandolin, fiddle); Charles Judge (piano, organ, keyboards, string synthesizer); Craig Young , Jimmie Lee Sloas (bass instrument); Jeff Rothschild, Shannon Forrest (drums); Hillary Lindsey, Brett James (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Luke Wooten.

With 2008's DO YOU KNOW, singer/actress Jessica Simpson wanders from her comfortable pop confines into country territory for a set of twangy crossover tunes. Born and raised in Texas, Simpson certainly has more built-in country cred than many performers, and she uses it to offer up an appealing album proudly in the Shania Twain/Faith Hill vein. Although many of these songs feature pedal-steel guitar, fiddle, and other telltale country instrumentation (see the lively opener, "Come On Over"), Simpson never pretends that these tracks are anything but Nashville-honed pop numbers. Simpson also uses DO YOU KNOW as way to return to her Christian-music roots, as most readily embodied by the celebratory "Pray Out Loud." The record's crowning moment, however, is easily the title track, both written by and featuring the legendary Dolly Parton, who helps to cap off DO YOU KNOW with an extra dose of energy and passion. While some country traditionalists may scoff at Simpson's Music City makeover, the album is remarkably assured, and stands as one of the pop star's finest outings.

Over the course of four albums in nearly ten years, the public at large has proven largely indifferent to Jessica Simpson the pop singer, stringing her along with a handful of charting singles but never quite giving her a big, undeniable pop hit, the kind that would justify her celebrity. Given that anemic track record, why wouldn't a good ol' Texas girl like Jessica leave the city for the country? That's exactly what Simpson and her omnipresent father/manager Joe have done with 2008's Do You Know, placing all their chips on the gamble that country fans will believe Jessica is now a sexy, sassy cowgirl, even though Do You Know has exactly as much sex and sass as her pop albums, meaning none at all. Just like her pop albums, the lively first single "Come on Over" -- sharing a title with Shania, but none of Twain's swing or strut -- is a ringer, suckering audiences into an album that's stiff and stuffy, an endless parade of dreary ballads and crawling love songs. Apart from a few fiddles and steel guitars, these songs are interchangeable with the dull adult pop that cluttered In This Skin and A Public Affair, and they wind up overwhelming whatever meager charms Do You Know has, overshadowing the title track duet with Dolly Parton, the not-bad "Come on Over," and "Still Beautiful," a quietly insistent empowerment anthem that has a hook big enough to camouflage Simpson's utter lack of recording presence. Jessica's team hasn't had a knack for picking the right song but she could possibly clear that hurdle if she showed some sign of life as a vocalist, but she's unfailingly listless no matter how many theatrical gestures she attempts to cram into her big boring ballads. Simpson has now been polished and packaged in the two genres that lend themselves to prefab stars, and she's not managed to make an impression in either, and there are only so many times a pretty face can try to flirt on record before she's not given another chance. [A CD/DVD version was also released.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Over the course of four albums in nearly ten years, the public at large has proven largely indifferent to Jessica Simpson the pop singer, stringing her along with a handful of charting singles but never quite giving her a big, undeniable pop hit, the kind that would justify her celebrity. Given that anemic track record, why wouldn't a good ol' Texas girl like Jessica leave the city for the country? That's exactly what Simpson and her omnipresent father/manager Joe have done with 2008's Do You Know, featuring the title track duet with Dolly Parton, the not-bad "Come on Over," and "Still Beautiful," a quietly insistent empowerment anthem. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize