Demi Lovato
Don't Forget (Hollywood)
ESSENTIAL "Don't Forget"
Demi Lovato is the latest 16-year-old called to the majors from the Disney Channel farm team. She has a giant smile, likes the colors red and black, and wears scarves, hats and Converse shoes. On her new debut, "Don't Forget," out today, Lovato throws her red leather gauntlet at Miley Cyrus's feet.
In terms of sound and style, the two aren't far apart, so Lovato has adopted the alternative narrative of the pop newcomer. The act is appealing but won't last long. Lovato has already mastered the limited range of skills required of today's pop starlets: the vulnerable-kitten verse, the banshee-shriek chorus, the stiffly sexy whispered asides. She rhymes "we used to be so strong" and "our love is like a song" without irony, and, showing her Gen-Y stripes, she forcibly rhymes "everything's the same" with "the La-La land machine" - pronounced, of course, "ma-SHAYN."
