Review: Ashlee Simpson

Review: Ashlee Simpson

Ashlee Simpson "I Am Me": Aidin Vaziri | George W. Bush put it best: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me ... you can't get fooled again." After the "Saturday Night Live" lip-synching debacle, Orange Bowl jeers and countless late-night talk show gags, Ashlee Simpson is not fooling anyone. Her biggest contribution to this follow-up to "Autobiography" was most likely posing for the creepy photo on the cover, leaving producer John Shanks (Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette) and lots of high-end studio gadgets to do all the heavy lifting. She wrestles with feelings of vulnerability on more-of-the-same tracks like "Beautifully Broken" and "Who Will Help Me When I Fall," but the whole thing feels so predictable, so cynical, so phony that for once it seems like the president knows what he's talking about.