D'luv may have beaten me to writing about Ashlee Simpson's new album cover, but I'm going to go for a hat trick of writing about artists or songs he dislikes and write about Ashlee today anyway. Her first album is one I associate with a very specific time period: my stepsister and cousin both bought copies of it when we were out in San Francisco and for about two weeks all I heard was that or the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. I don't think I could hum anything beyond "Autobiography," "Pieces of Me," and "La La" from it now, but those are three great songs. I thought "Boyfriend," the lead single for her second album, was great, but couldn't stand "L.O.V.E." and never listened to her second album. I guess the point of all this reminiscing is to say that I was open to liking her new material but not guaranteed to like it. I really appreciated the thought behind the her Timbaland-penned third album lead single "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)," but it just didn't quite work for me--it was so close to being a great song, but just missing something, and it being that close and then missing out made it such a frustrating listen that I quickly moved on.Thank goodness for Brad Walsh, then--I had a couple of his songs from a few years ago but hadn't followed him since (apparently he's dating Christian from Project Runway now), but if what he's done to "Outta My Head" is any indication, I should've been paying proper attention to him earlier, or at least to his remix work. His remix of "Outta My Head" isn't a radical reinvention of the song--instead, it's like he's just...finished it, made it complete. It's now got more electro crunch and more of a feeling of forward motion (which I am really thankful for).
Outta My Head (Brad Walsh Remix)
This remix was put up as a free download, but you can buy Brad Walsh's albums from iTunes here (digital) and the original version of Ashlee Simpson's "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" from iTunes (in the U.S.) here.
Next up: maybe something Swedish.
