Beautiful Soul
Jesse McCartney is so pinup-ready, so boy-bandishly appealing in that shaggy-sweet kind of way, that anyone older than 17 will likely be rolling their eyes at him. You know what comes next: they shouldn't. In a classic case of can-that-many-teenage-girls-be-wrong?, McCartney's solo debut sparkles—the danceable tracks call to mind Michael Jackson in his early '80s heydey, the ballads reek of Babyface, and the rest rolls up Hall & Oates, Craig David, and flecks of Usher into a rib-sticking concoction anybody with an ear for pop will want to swallow whole. It's not exactly brain food—the tracks he co-wrote, including standout and opener "She's No You," "What's Your Name," and "That Was Then," are little more than smooth, shiny come-ons telling high school girls what they want to hear. And there's no denying the disc is front-loaded, with the relationshippy stuff starting to wear as track 12 approaches. But despite those things—and despite the name he's made for himself on TV (first onAll My Childrenand more recently on WB'sSummerland), which will only add to his early panning among "serious" listeners—Beautiful Soulsets out plenty of reasons to believe that this heartthrob, no matter how long his tousle-haired beauty holds up, has got soul to burn.--Tammy La Gorce