Verdict: Ashley's "Alright" and "OK", I Guess...

Le sigh.

Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. I already professed how excited I was to hear your new material. I will even cop to staring at your new promo photos and wondering why the heck my similarly colored hair didn't look as striking as yours did.

And then the first single from your sophomore set, Guilty Pleasure, dubbed "It's Alright, It's OK" leaked.

She really couldn't have picked a better title because the song is exactly that. It's alright. It's okay. But nothing more than that.

The problem is, had Ashley been the first one out of the gate with this Max Martin-esque synthy power-pop (and not P!NK or Katy Perry or Kelly Clarkson) this song would have been a lot better. But instead, it sounds like a washed up B-Side of P!NK's "So What" or Clarkson's "My Life". And I don't mean that in any kind of good way. In fact, I find myself humming, "My life (My life!) would suck (would suck!)..." or "So what? I'm still a rock star..." throughout this song without even bothering to listen to the real lyrics.

I'm guessing that for the Disney tween set, this will be fine and dandy, and help hold them over til her release. But I'm not enthused.

So I guess it goes without saying that this song completely lacks the popaliciousness that "He Said She Said" had, or even "Be Good To Me". In fact, I much prefer that demo "I'm Back/I'm That" to this. And the saddest part? The song was produced by a Swedish pop duo, TWIN, who usually do popalicious the way it should be done. They produced Ashley's aforementioned "Be Good To Me" and "Not Like That" which I admit, I've bopped along to on several occasions. They also produced the short lived (at least I'm assuming) Tiffany Affair's "Over It".

But the pinnacle of TWIN's most recent incredibleness is their work on V Factory's "Love Struck". That song is freaking AMAZING, and is quintessential pop goodness. It should come to no surprise that they work with Ashley then, because not only did they work with her before, but they also created that brillance for her boyfriend, Jared Murillo and boys in the new *NSYNC. (However, I have heard the two have recently broken up? Anyone else hear that? I hope it's not true...).

Anyway you slice it -- Ashley got the bad end of the deal with this one. I like her better as a clubby pop girl, not this powered up Kelly Clarkson wannabe. Here's to hoping Guilty Pleasure is much more guilty pleasure-y than this.