Ryan Cabrera
became a star in 2004, as his debut album,
Take It All Away
, peaked in the
Billboard
Top Ten with its two singles,
"On the Way Down"
and
"True,"
climbing into the Top 20 and Top Ten, respectively. Part of it was due to his slick, youthful spin on earnest post-alternative mainstream
pop/rock
like
Third Eye Blind
,
Matchbox Twenty
, and
the Goo Goo Dolls
(whose
Johnny Rzeznik
co-produced
), but his popularity was due equally to his much-publicized doomed romance with
pop
tart
Ashlee Simpson
. This got his name in the tabloids and his face on
MTV
's
The Ashlee Simpson Show
, which went a long way to giving him a personality. Because of this, some fans may feel the desire to interpret the songs on his quickly released second album,
You Stand Watching
(it hit the streets 13 months after his debut), as a chronicle of his relationship with
Ashlee
and its aftermath, but the songs not only don't hold up under such scrutiny, they're not designed to invite such an analysis. They're songs about love lost and won, targeted at teens but produced to appeal to their moms. This was true on
but
goes even further into the adult-
breach, and
Cabrera
co-wrote all 11 songs and takes sole credit for the production, which downplays whatever harder edges
Rzeznik
brought to the debut. Thanks to his fondness for
post-grunge
guitar pop
, he winds up with a record that has a bit more muscle than
Clay Aiken
, but certainly manages to straddle the
adult contemporary
teen pop
worlds in a similar fashion. If anything,
leans a little closer to the adult side of the fence, and the polished, anthemic sound of
was designed to have an all-ages appeal. Since
does write and deliver his own material, there is an impression that he's sincere about his tales of heartbreak.
is far from being either bad or offensive -- it's too well-produced and professional for that -- and despite the increased sense of safety and slickness, it will likely please fans of his first album since it pretty much delivers more of the same. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine