Post by StevePulaski on Oct 7, 2014 16:38:20 GMT -5
Another Earthquake! (2002)
By: Aaron Carter
By: Aaron Carter
Rating: ★★★
Aaron Carter's fourth and final studio album, Another Earthquake!, features some of the best songs of his entire career. With a deeper voice and a more realized sound, that, while commercialized at least feels like he had more input in the sound of his songs, Carter decorates Another Earthquake! in a way that lives up to its title. It's fast-paced, occasionally rocky, but for the most part, kind of rocks in itself.
This is coming from someone who, for the last couple weeks, explored Carter's four albums and talked in an in-depth manner about the singer's musical career. I dually note the teen pop singer because of the fact that his career proves (a) the many benefits of nepotism and (b) shows how quickly one rises and falls in the pop music world. Another Earthquake!, while receiving some of the best reviews of any of Carter's previous albums, sold well under 100,000 copies, and being that his previous albums managed to easily break over a million units in sales, there wasn't much hope for Carter following his fourth studio album. He had grown up, his voice had changed, and he had moved on to the drudgery of nostalgic concerts and monotonous greatest hits compilations from studios still desperate to milk every last dollar they could off of the blonde pop star.
Another Earthquake!, however, benefits from Carter's deeper voice and more grown-up persona (he was fifteen at the time of this album's release). He opens the album with the titular jam, talking about shaking the world with yet another album that serves as a metaphorical earthquake. Following that is the smooth-talking "thank you" to all his female fans who have kept his career alive in "To All the Girls" (no love for the male listeners, I see), the tranquil and sun-soaked song "Summertime," featuring the talent of the inimitable Baha Men, and "America A O," which celebrates America and nationalism in a totally harmless way and also went on to achieve the honor of being the most requested song in the history of Radio Disney.
None of these thirteen tracks are quite notable for their subversive or investing lyricism, but they are notable because Carter doesn't, for the lack of a better term, dick around quite as much with the structuring of his album or the listlessness of performing interchangeable love songs. He doesn't grace every track with a meaningless interlude, as he did in Aaron's Party (Come Get It), nor does he overplay one particular genre or element; he gives his fans a taste of pop-rap and dance-pop, and a fairly solid taste at that, concluding the singer's career, at least in respect to official album releases, in a pleasant and harmless manner.
It has now been twelve years since the release of Another Earthquake!. With that, we've seen pop stars come and go, but Carter was one of the last teen stars, along with Hillary Duff, to function in the music industry without the distraction of online media, piracy, and constant paparazzi. Carter was a few years too early for the obsessive Twitter accounts tweeting his every move, and the TMZ reporters eager to capture a slip-up or an ugly rumor/secret about the star, to which I'm sure he's grateful. And while much of his work can be classified under average or forgettable, there's a part of me that truly enjoyed perusing through his discography, mainly because we simply saw a young tween having fun, doing what he presumably loved - making people dance to his beats.
Recommended tracks (in order): "America A O," "Summertime," "Another Earthquake!," "To All the Girls," and "When It Comes to You."