Changes

Album Review

Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, is under no delusions about why she received a recording contract. The only reason she has a contract is her celebrity, created by the fluke pop-culture phenomenon of 2002, The Osbournes. Once that publicity machine kicked in, it was virtually inevitable that Kelly would have her pop-culture artifact — voilà, Shut Up. Fortunately, this is much better than its pedigree suggests. It's a spunky, lively little record that has no illusions about being anything other than a folly, a bit of a lark. Sure, there's artifice here. Sure, it's lightweight. Sure, Kelly isn't a particularly gifted vocalist. Yet this works because it keeps its goals small and doesn't try too hard. It simply has fun, and it's hard not to have fun while listening to it, even if it turns out to be a transient pleasure. Much like the Osbournes show, then. [Kelly Osbourne's time at Epic was short-lived. She was dropped not long after her album failed to live up to commercial expectations, but Sanctuary picked her up a few months later, leading to Shut Up being repackaged and retitled as Changes, released less than a year after Shut Up. Changes also included six bonus tracks, four of them live versions, but also the version of "Papa Don't Preach" from the Osbourne Family Album soundtrack and a duet with Ozzy on the title track. While the live tracks bog the album down a bit, "Papa Don't Preach" and "Changes" are nice inclusions.]