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Review: Paris Hilton
By Nicholas Dewart
dewart@mscd.edu

Paris Hilton Paris (Warner Bros., 2006)

Branding phrases, full-color advertising inserts, a watch line and magazine-cover appearances, all done to saturate pop culture with your name and feed your business’ bottom line.

This is not Donald Trump’s business-plan makeover. It is Paris Hilton’s venture into music with her debut album Paris.

Everything from Hilton’s first intelligible words – her signature branding phrase of “That’s hot” – to the CD insert advertising her handbags and watches makes this album seem more like a marketing firm’s new approach to promotion than an 11-song, major-label debut.

Hilton helped pen five of the songs on Paris, including “Jealousy,” which boasts the bridge lyrics, “Everything I did, I did because I cared. So how did all the good between us get so bad? Maybe some day we’ll get back what we had.” Hilton was able to put a little of her Simple Life into this Scott Storch-produced track and bemoan her estranged friendship with ex co-star Nicole Richie.

In the electro-pop number “Turn You On,” Hilton sings, “Sorry I turned you on. Take a cold shower when you get home,” wittily alluding that she’s “hot.” It’s that branding thing again; she’s not rich for nothing.

On the album, Hilton’s musical palate does venture into a few genres including pop, reggae, dance, rock and even hip-hop, the latter with the tune “Fightin’ Over Me.” This track is the highlight of Paris because it features Fat Joe and Jadakiss and does a good job of taking the attention off of Hilton’s over-indulgent moans and coos, which are generously sprinkled throughout the album.

Above all, Hilton is a businesswoman. She’s smart enough to bring in big-name producers, from Storch, who worked with 50 Cent and Beyoncé, to Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, who worked with Kelly Clarkson, to collaborate on this album and clinch another share of bottom-line success.

Ultimately, Paris is the musical equivalent of Shake ‘N Bake. Anyone given the proper ingredients of high profile producers, A-list songwriters, major label distribution and promotion can cook up something tasty and consumable for the masses, but it’s nothing to rely on for nourishment.