As everybody knows, is famous simply for existing. Even before she was a household name the heiress to the hotel fortune was famous in certain circles, partially because of her pedigree, partially because she was at every exclusive party, partially because of her very name, an instantly memorable and malleable moniker that spawned T-shirts ("Paris Hilton Is Burning") and gossip websites alike. All this hipster activity was bound to spill over into the mainstream and it did in a spectacular fashion in 2003 when she and -- her best friend for life circa 2003 -- starred in the reality series The Simple Life, which saw the two pampered socialites attempting to fit into the real world of Wal-Marts and roadhouse saloons. Pretty soon, she was everywhere and she began dabbling in almost every part of the entertainment industry, from film to fashion. What all these projects had in common is that they all featured as -- even when she was getting whacked in House of Wax, she wasn't really playing a character -- and in all of them her presence never matched her persona, which always was more compelling as seen through the prism of tabloids. She seemed destined to never deliver any project that would justify her fame, and it certainly seemed that the album that she spent two years recording would not be the project that would be a flat-out success -- that prolonged gestation for a album nearly guarantees trouble of some kind. Amazingly, that long-to-materialize album turns out to be shockingly good -- and not just according to a grading curve for actors-turned-singers. After all, was never an actress to begin with; she was a media creation who peddled the same image to a number of different formats, and it just so happens that her act is perfectly suited for . Of course, it helps that she has a crack team of professionals supporting her on , chief among them songwriter and producer/co-writer , who is name-dropped on the first song, and leaves a heavy imprint on the rest of the record, producing just over half of it and serving as one of the executive producers along with and herself. They come up with a sound that's casually modern and retro with enough heft in its rhythms to sound good at clubs, yet it's designed to be heard outdoors on the sunniest day of the summer. This is exceedingly light music, as sweet and bubbly as a wine spritzer, yet it isn't so frothy that it floats away. Like the best lightweight , retains its sense of fun through repeated listens, long past the point that the novelty of releasing a good album has worn off. Make no mistake, is a very good album, at times deliberately reminiscent of , and , yet having its own distinct character -- namely, ' persona, which is shamelessly shallow and devoid of any depth. Where that might be irritating within a movie or within pop culture at large, when placed in a shiny, hooky album it works splendidly, particularly because the songs are strong and and company know how to keep things light -- and everybody involved knows that it's fun to play around with ' image, no matter if it's her murmuring "that's hot" at the beginning of the record or covering 's or writing about her feud with on the delightful But for as much as is about , she doesn't necessarily stand out here; her voice -- which is almost certainly auto-tuned and tweaked by a computer, yet it's nevertheless appealing, more so than ' often awkward squawk -- may blend into the production, yet that actually helps the recordings since it emphasizes the melodies above everything else. And there are some irresistible melodies here: the breezy the gilded rush of driven by a sample, the sweet rewrite and the great of for starters. Yes, there is no denying that this is a pure piece of product, but it is indeed pure as product. makes no apologies for being mass-market , but everybody involved made sure that this was well-constructed mass-market . It may not bear the mark of an auteur the way does, but it never feels tossed-off, and track-for-track it's more fun than anything released by or , and a lot fresher, too. It's easy to hate -- lord knows that she and her friends like are walking advertisements against the repeal of the estate tax -- but any fan who listens to with an open mind will find that it's nothing but fun. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine