Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson's A Public Affair makes Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics, her stab at channeling Etta James, look like a risk on par with Dylan going electric. Affair, Simpson's "divorce" record (how old is she again?), is blissed-out bubblegum, liberally and unapologetically stealing from Madonna, Janet, Shania -- even Kansas gets a nod (check the guitar on "Back to You"). With seemingly nothing to prove, the diva throws herself a party, one that's as guilty a pleasure as staying up late watching Freddie Prinze movies and mowing down chocolate chip.

Did Ashlee get all the talent? On Jessica's big post-divorce statement, she still sounds like a
prissy kid, braying, "I complete myself" in "I Belong to Me," her answer to Nick Lachey's
"What's Left of Me." "A Public Affair" copies Madonna's "Holiday," "The Lover in Me" copies
"Like a Prayer," and the Janet Jackson rip "If You Were Mine" combines the lyrics of "If"
with the backing track from "When I Think of You." Who else could make "You S... More >