Preteens these days face such inhumane circumstances; they have to do the dishes, clean their room, take out the trash, and go through puberty. Daily decisions become increasingly stressful. With such life-altering thoughts such as "Do my ugg boots match my duster?" and "I wonder if Adam Brody is really that hot in person", how could you not blame them for lashing out at their opressive parental units and rebelling. Why, they may just start not brushing their teeth, or even worse, listening to that
damn rock music.
In 2003, some twelve year old by the name of Cheyenne Kimball won
America's Most Talented Kid, an American Idolesque ripoff aired on NBC that mainly consists of midget preteens doing preteeny things such as magic and dancing. The thing is, Cheyenne has been playing music since the age of seven, when her (stage)parents bought her a guitar and she taught herself to play. She wrote her first song at eight, after being sent to her room for making a mean remark towards her older sister. Since then she has apparently written 200 songs, and if one isn't about Adam Brody, what's the point?
This past spring and summer, MTV aired
Cheyenne, an eight episode promotional tool documenting her various hardships, such as getting a record deal and moving to Los Angeles.
And thus we have Cheyenne's debut album,
The Day Has Come. As you would most likely expect, is an album of hot tween action and a barrelful of clichés, which don't really hurt the album at all but are still worth a mention. However, despite her contemporaries (Hillary Duff, Raven, et al), the songs are competent and well written; she actual sounds like she knows what she's doing. This isn't surprising though, because Kimball has writing and cowriting credits on every song here, further solidfying that she is a little more than another bubblegum "ugh" fest.
Musically and lyrically,
The Day Has Come is easy to get along with. As it is expected, the production is clear and complimentory, putting some of the focus on Cheyenne's voice, but not too much, as she sings in a more earnest tone than most tweeny type chicks. Is it creepy that she sounds kind of hot in just about every song? No. The songs here range from pop-rock with dirrrty southern-tinged guitars ("Hello Goodbye", "Breaking Your Heart") to more straight up pop stuff that VH1 would probably blow it's load over. Despite some lyrical misteps here and there such as
"I've had a bad day, and nothing ever seems to go my way" and
"Am I speaking Japanese, I told you twenty times but you still don't get it", songs such as the title track, "Good Go Bad, "Mr. Beautiful" and "Full Circle" are all irresistably pleasant and fun to listen to, with no lack of good hooks and compositional skill. "Full Circle" especially succeeds at doing everything the other songs do, ten times better and flawlessly.
The Day Has Come may not be the most original or though-provoking album, but it's a welcome remedy to Ashlee Simpsonitis.
Now the question is whether or not Ms. Kimball will be able remain on the radar and not fall into one-hit wonder, blip on the screen obscurity like all of her fellow mean girlz eventually will. There's a lot of promise and potential for growth shown by Cheyenne. The only growth Raven has shown has been in her waist line.
