As is often the case in celebrity world, younger siblings get tacked on to their older, more successful siblings’ fame, and more often then not, get left in their dust. Today, I’d like to discuss two little sisters’ albums that have been grossly left in the dust!

First there is one of the most famous little sisters in recent history - Ashlee Simpson. Her album, Bittersweet World, came out back in late April, and has pretty much just sat on the store shelves and collected dust, basically forcing Little Miss Obsessive to cancel her tour, with the handy excuse that she was pregnant as a reason, instead of, “My album flopped. Hardcore.”

In spite of all this, the collection did offer a few pop gems, and was a vast improvement over her previous outing, the redundantly titled I Am Me. I think what started this project off on the wrong foot was the odd choice for lead single, “Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya).” While a decent song and a bold move on Ashlee’s part, the song was too awkward and bizarre for her core American audience. As a lifelong American, I feel at liberty to say that in a general consensus, we’re a pretty conservative bunch of folks. At least, those of us who like Ashlee in a passing manner. The strange clanking beats are out of left field for Ashlee, and even for producer Timbaland, who must have gotten a nice chunk of change to work with the black sheep of the Simpson sisters. (Is that even really the case anymore, one wonders). The video helps add some flair to the song, and a remix by Dave Aude finished the entire thing off nicely, but in general, audiences just weren’t having it, and the single topped out at a measly number 121 at the end of 2007.

The follow-up single, “Little Miss Obsessive,” suffered a similar fate, reaching only slightly better to come in at number 96. Not even Dave Aude’s mixes could save this trainwreck of a song (my apologies to my fellow Jiingoer Shan, who seems to, for some reason, love this song!), and no one even bothered to make a video for it. The annoying “Whoa-oh”’s are what really ruined it for me, and as a second single, it seemed kind of desperate on Ashlee’s label’s part. Since the outside the box “Outta My Head” flopped, let’s throw out a track that sounds like some of her old material. Wise choice, y’all!

There are rumors that “Murder” will be the third and final single release from Bittersweet World, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. If the label was smart, they would have opened the set with possibly the strongest song among the bunch, “Boys.” In the stellar pop ditty, Ashlee laments about how boys fall for her seductive ways, and -really!- she doesn’t mean for it to happen! Very cheeky and full of fun.

My favorite track on the collection is “Hot Stuff,” an ode to drinking too much, falling down the Candy Land chute with unicorns and fairy wings, and all around eccentricities as such. Definitely not a wise single choice, but a stand-out track in a massively pleasing way. Other ear-pleasers include “Rule Breaker,” and the excellent bonus track “Follow You Wherever You Go,” which casts Ashlee as a psycho-obsessed (ex?) girlfriend.

All in all, I’d give this one a go, if you haven’t already, and root for the underdog. Jessica, ha. Who needs her?

My next little sister is amazing, and was once the biggest sibling amongst her clan. That’s right, La Toya’s little sister - Janet. Miss Jackson if ya nasty. In February, Janet released her first album since the flop that was 20Y.O., sexually titled Discipline.

Janet’s prior album, Damita Jo, was also a flop, but moreso do to conservative America disliking her black tits at the Super Bowl, then for the excellent material it held within. So with Discipline, enough time had passed, I felt, where she would receive a fair shot. Beyond that, she was also on a new label, Island/Def Jam, after leaving stale Virgin, after more than a decade-long run.

Def Jam was talking about how Janet’s new album would bring her back to the limelight that she’d fallen out of after the Super Bowl dilemma, and that she would NOT be ignored.

The first single was released, the epic and stellar “Feedback,” and it was featured in several magazines as “Single of The Week/Month,” including People Weekly and Entertainment Weekly. There were online debates on whether the now-classic lyric “My swag is serious/Somethin’ heavy like a first-day period,” was disgusting, hilarious, both, or perhaps something completely different. This song signaled good things for Janet and her new album.

Then the video was released. What. The. Hell. Janet looked ridiculous dancing around in milk, jumping from planet to planet. It was such a slap in the face to the fantastic track. It only got better towards the end, when Ms. Jackson was in a hot red skin-tight jump suit, playing with what looked like a giant ball of semen. But alas, it was milk, and overall, the video was a hot trainwreck of crap! Poop!

Despite the shitty video, I ordered the limited edition of the album, and was overjoyed when it hit my mailbox. The packaging was fierce, Janet seemed primed to make a comeback, even if her lead video was kind of lame. The introduction is fabulous, she discussing the entry process to the Discipline album with her robot friend Kyoko. Feedback comes right in after that, and starts us off on a high note, which is followed fantastically with “Luv,” and “Rock With U.” These two songs were promoted simultaneously by Janet’s label, which seemed to cause even more confusion amongst the fans and industry. She performed “Luv” on The Ellen Degeneres Show, but went on to shoot a video for “Rock With U,” which was definitely an improvement over “Feedback,” but still not nearly as eye-grabbing as we know she’s capable of.

The song “2Nite” was used in the Sex & The City Movie, and “Can’t B Good” was rumored to be the fourth (or is it third?) single from Discipline. One song I never got the hoopla over was “Greatest X.” Talk about shitty to the max! The guitars sound straight out of Beverly Hills 90210. And the title track? Oh dear God, don’t let the very imagery that goes with the lyrics enter my mind! “Make me cry, daddy, make me cry.” No thanks, Janet, we’ll leave that one to… daddy?

I will give props to two very excellent tracks I’ve yet to call attention to: “So Much Betta” and “What’s Ur Name?” Both songs have brought mixed reactions from fans and critics alike, but I enjoy them immensely. “So Much Betta” is basically an album-filler from heaven. A short, electronic slice of awesomeness with one verse, and one bridge, both used twice, and a micro-Janet-sounding chorus. The bridge is my favorite, where Janet proclaims, “I’m what you’ve been missing/You might need to jump on this.” Duh.

“What’s Ur Name?” is often singled out as a dud, but say what you might, I love it! It’s a simple ditty about Janet spotting some random guy and needing to get his info NOW! It’s simplistic, like I’ve said, and to the point. Definitely worthy of repeat listens.

I doubt we’ll be getting any more singles from Discipline or Bittersweet World, but in a perfect world, they’d still be riding high on the charts next to Rihanna and whatever else is the flavor of the moment. Unfortunately, that’s very likely not going to happen, and with that, I tuck these two collections in my “Secret Files” portion of my brain.

Enjoy, if you haven’t already!

Tags: Ashlee Simpson, Janet Jackson

This entry is filed under Reviews, Underrated, We Dig. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.