Here We Go Again

Album Review

Like Britney Spears before her, Demi Lovato pretty much admits in the title of her sophomore album that she's serving up more of the same the second time around, but unlike Britney, that may not have been Demi's intention. For Here We Go Again, Lovato makes a relatively clean break from the Jonas Brothers, who penned much of her debut, Don't Forget, drafting sensitive AAA singer/songwriters Jon McLaughlin and John Mayer presumably to give Lovato a bit of mature veneer, a subtle shift buried underneath the relentlessly cheerful Radio Disney production and Lovato's irrepressible spunk. Both sonic characteristics tend to camouflage Demi's biggest moves away from teen pop — the fussy balladeering of "Falling Over Me," the mock-Mraz jazz-pop "Every Time You Lie," the sober soul searching of the Mayer collaboration "World of Chances," the Celtic flair of "Gift of a Friend" — which also happen to be the very things that make Here We Go Again not quite as much fizzy fun as Don't Forget. Not quite as much fun, but still fun, particularly when Lovato tears into hooky power pop like "Here We Go Again," "Solo," "Remember December," and the stomping "So Far So Great," the theme song to the TV show Sonny with a Chance, songs that are ideally matched to Lovato's adolescent energy and spirit, which remain her most appealing qualities.