Elektra Entertainment
Pop, 2001

Vitamin C ditches the faux-reggae beats of her debut self-titled album for the well-polished “rougher” sounds. More has the hooks and the potential, but some really bad misfires bog it down.

In fact, girls, Vitamin C wants to tell you this time around that it’s okay to play dirty. The Itch is a brilliant track about getting all antsy and horny, perfect were it not for its silly and badly worded chorus (“I feel the itch again, I’m starting to twitch again…” – er, rigor mortis, anyone?) Dangerous Girl, Sex Has Come Between Us (what a title!), and I Can’t Say No continue the theme, albeit at a level toned down for 13 year old girls. And when she finds her boy playing games on her in Busted, she really steps down hard on that cheating scum with her stiletto heels. Nice.

But the best track has to be That Was Then, This Is Now, a surprisingly adult – okay, 18 year old-ish – tune about losing one’s virginity to a cheating, no-good illegitimate SOB. It’s not a sobfest, but an unexpectedly poignant song where she sings that even if it’s just a game to him, to her it is something she will cling to as a memory to remember.

And I suspect many ladies will empathize with her when Vitamin C commiserates about the lies he tells her:

You said, “I’ll be your first, my love
There’ll never ever be another one
Don’t worry, I’ll tell no one
You and me together’ll be so much fun.”

There are some really cringing misfires, such as Vitamin C’s awful massacre of I Know What Boys Like and the dull ballads As Long as You’re Loving Me. Vitamin C can’t play cute – come on, who is she fooling? She’s not a giggly Britney Spears, she’s actually Daria.

More ain’t exactly more, it’s actually a progression of Vitamin C’s music.