Public Affair

Enhanced International pressing of Jessica's fifth album features three bonus tracks: 'I Belong To Me', 'These Boots Are Made For Walking' and the Enhanced Video for the album's first single, 'Public Affair'. Jessica boasts songwriting skills on nine out of 12 tracks from the new album, which is produced by the most sought-after producers: Lester Mendez, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Cory Rooney, Scott Storch and Stargate. The first single's video clip is directed by Brett Ratner of X-Men fame a star-studded video chronicling a fun night out with Jessica and her celebrity friends. In the clip, Jessica Simpson is joined by Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Maria Menounos, Andy Dick & Ryan Seacrest Sony/BMG. 2007.

A Public Affair is a disco-studded, stunningly entertaining, 13-song slab of energetic white-girl pop. From the summer-fizzy first song and title track--which lifts, improbably, from both Madonna and the Supremes--Simpson tears out of the gate refusing to fall back on stale-sounding power ballads, something of a signature in the past. "You Spin Me Round" updates the Dead or Alive '80s hit; the vampy and innovative "B.O.Y." borrows from a vintage Cars track; and "Walkin' 'Round in a Circle," about as sleepy a track as you'll find here, seems to put a kind of pop spit-shine on a tune both Stevie Nicks and Ryan Adams popularized. Later tracks, including the excellent Louis Prima-inspired "Swing with Me" and the shockingly urban-sounding "Fired Up," bring Simpson's inner femme fatale to the fore. Let's hope it doesn't slink away anytime soon--other Simpson discs have been forgettable, but this is an affair to remember. --Tammy La Gorce