A Little More Personal (Raw)

A Little More Personal (Raw) is Lindsay Lohan's second studio album which was released on December 5, 2005 on Casablanca Records.
The album received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised Lohan's ambition, despite considering it a weak album. 
It charted mildly compared to her debut album, peaking at #20 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 82,000 copies.
==Tracklisting==
#Confessions Of A Broken Heart (Daughter To Father) 3:41
#Black Hole 4:02
#I Live For The Day 3:10
#I Want You To Want Me 3:09
#My Innocence 4:19
#A Little More Personal 2:59
#If It's Alright 4:07
#If You Were Me 2:55
#Fastlane 3:23
#Edge Of Seventeen 4:22
#Who Loves You 3:50
#Beautiful Life (La Bella Vita) 3:28
==Album Background==
During the shoot of the music video for "First," Lohan released in an interview with MTV that she was preparing her second studio album.
She said, "When you get into the studio, everything just comes out. All your creative juices are there. I don't [want to] leave. I'll still be in there until all hours, and it's nice to be able to do that."
Lohan began writing lyrics for the album in June of 2005, after the last single from her previous album had been released. She said, "I've been writing a lot, almost every night. There's been a lot going on [in my life lately], and I think people can find that escape in hobbies that they do. I don't do yoga or anything, but some people use that. Everyone has their own thing, and I use writing."
Initially titled "There's Only One Angel in Heaven," the album features a darker theme when compared to Lohan's debut album.
The lead single and first track "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)" was mainly written by Lindsay as a letter to her father, Michael Lohan, who was incarcerated in June of 2005 after surviving a car crash for which he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.
Additional writing and song production was done by Greg Wells and Kara DioGuardi, who revealed, "If you solo the vocals you'll hear race cars, because we brought the studio to [Lindsay's] trailer on Herbie: Fully Loaded. I'm not kidding! She had no time to do the record, so she would be on her lunch break, and I'd be like, 'Throw that thing down your throat and get over here, 'cause we got to finish these vocals!' So I sat for 14 hours on the set and would grab her for, like, 10 minutes at a time. The poor girl. That's the reality of young Hollywood. When they're hot, they're worked to death. It was 18/20-hour days. ... And I swear: 'Vroom! Vroom!' You can hear it in the back."
"My Innocence" is also about Lohan's father.
Lohan also covered "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick and "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks for the album.
==Chart Performance==
"A Little More Personal (Raw)" debuted at #20 on the Billboard 200 on the week of December 24, 2005 with first week sales of 82,000 copies, staying on the chart for seven weeks.
The album debuted in the same week at the same position on the Billboard Digital Albums chart, dropping off the chart on the following week.
The album was certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over 500,000 copies. It was also certified Gold in Taiwan.
==Critical Reception==
"A Little More Personal (Raw)" received mixed reviews from critics. The album holds a score of 50 out of 100 based on 9 critical reviews, according to the music review aggregator Metacritic.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three stars out of five, saying, "Lindsay Lohan clearly spells out her ambition in the title to her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw) -- she's going to shed the glitzy trappings of her debut, Speak, and dig down deep in her heart, letting feelings flood onto the page."
Erlewine also stated that even though the album "is far from being totally successful, it is an intriguing mash-up of heart and commerce. And it does suggest one thing that Speak never did: Lindsay Lohan may have an artistic vision as a recording artist, which is indeed a huge step forward".
Entertainment Weekly 's Leah Greenblatt said, "like so many pop records today, Personal has more than its share of filler, and like all teenagers, Lohan contradicts herself. [...] Perhaps Personal 's vulnerability is calculated, and its rawness a misnomer, or maybe she's really opening up. We'll probably never know. Lindsay may no longer be on the edge of 17, but being 19, troubled, and ridiculously famous can cut pretty deep, so props to her for letting us see her bleed — just a little".
Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone said Lohan "makes a fatal mistake on her second album: She tries to, like, express herself" while a Los Angeles Times critic also gave the album a negative review, claiming that, "for most of the album, [Lohan] sounds like any other self-absorbed teen, yearning to be Alanis, Gwen and even Stevie Nicks."
Whitney Strub of PopMatters stated, "what can one expect from an album that promises to get more personal but includes lyrics declaring, “no one knows how I feel inside/And I’m keeping it that way” (from “Fastlane”)?", and commenting that "with A Little More Personal, Lindsay Lohan reminds us that, despite such blossoms, pop still has the potential to climb the charts while combining blandness, banality and vapidity".
Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine considered the album "more consistent than its predecessor, and it's not a bad listen by any means, but for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones."
Category:2000s albums
Category:Pop
Category:Pop Rock