No Secrets
If this saucy quintet sounds familiar, you might remember them as the impish female background singers behindAaron Carter's teen pop classic "Oh Aaron" and his oddly titled "Stride (Jump on the Fizzy)." If that doesn't jog your memory, recall how they transformedKim Wilde's "Kids in America" into a futuristic pop anthem for theJimmy Neutronsoundtrack. Named in homage toNo Doubt, No Secrets does have a huge one: not only do they have an abundance of talent, but they also have the preternatural sense of ironic self-knowledge that Prince showed in his formative years. TheirPrince-like sensibility inflames their songs with a playful outrageousness. In "That's What Girls Do" they demand: "You ask me why I change the color of my hair / You ask me why I need 32 pairs of shoes / You seem to ask me why I got a lot of things / It's just a chick thing / You ought to let it go." These five supremely confident young women have none of the coyness or the unrelenting earnestness usually found in teen pop. Instead, they have a genius for dynamics and off-beat rhythms, and a wicked sense of humor that elevates their songs of love and female empowerment into playful, provocative gems.--Jaan Uhelszki