I Wanna Be With You

Performer: Mandy Moore
Artist: Dakari; Billy Lawrence
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: This is an Enhanced audio CD which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Personnel includes: Mandy Moore, Dakari (vocals); The Wasabees (various instruments); Keith Thomas (acoustic guitar, programming); Fraser T. Smith, Michael Holmberg, Chris Braide, Jerry McPherson, Kenny Greenburg (guitar); Eric Gorfain, Terry Glenny (violin); Richard Dodd (cello); John Yoakum (flute, oboe); David Rice (piano, keyboards); Johnny Jam, Cory Rooney, Dan Shea (keyboards, programming); Graham Edwards (bass); David Palmer (drums); Dan Muckola, Nick Trevisick (programming); Tiffany Arbuckle, Marian Svanekjaek, Billy Lawrence, Audrey Martells, Cindy Mizelle (background vocals). Producers include: The Wasabees, Keith Thomas, Peter Mansson, Jan Kask, Jimmy Jam. Engineers include: The Wasabees, Peter Mansson, Robb Williams. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Pop quiz. So, the album that you planned to be a teen pop blockbuster to rival BMG's massive success with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera flops with nary a trace. What do you do? Well, if you're 550/Epic, faced with the flailing Mandy Moore debut, you shuffle the order of the songs, remix a couple of tracks, and shoot a new, sexy glamour shot of your underage diva so she looks shockingly like Britney. A crass marketing move, to be sure, but hey, tough times call for drastic measures like that. The thing is, the revamped, puzzlingly titled I Wanna Be with You [Special Edition] (thereby giving the impression that this is an extended EP release or that there's a "regular" edition of I Wanna Be with You, which there's not) works a lot better than its predecessor. Why? Because it's trashier, flashier, gaudier, and altogether more disposable: all essential ingredients for a good teen pop album, since it should be something that is of the moment, not designed for the ages. I Wanna Be with You is definitely, almost defiantly of the moment, and while there's more than its fair share of filler (let's face it, there was a reason why the album needed to be reworked), that filler glitters here where it was simply dull on the predecessor. And, most of all, it's pretty fun, whether it's on ballads or dance numbers. Moore still isn't as good as Britney or Christina, since she just doesn't have a comparable persona or material, but with this she vaults above Jessica Simpson and maybe, just maybe, captures the bronze for female teen pop divas in 2000 (Hoku being disqualified because she is pitched at a younger crowd). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Can't get enough of 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears? Then Mandy Moore's sophomore album wants to come into your life, and it would be a shame not to let it. Like the aforementioned teen idols, Moore dispenses candy-coated escapist fluff that combines updated '50s ballads ("Your Face"), dance music (the remix of the title song), and Eurodance ("The Way to My Heart"), the lingua franca of international pop since Ace Of Bass. Moore isn't a terribly subtle singer, but she's remarkably accomplished for a 16-year old, and, tellingly, she's mastered that essential post-Mariah Carey vibrato that has become a signifier for X-E-S spelled backwards. Disposable music doesn't get any better.

Q (7/00, p.121) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Polished and irrepressibly upbeat, a mix of gentle love songs and bubblegum dance-pop..."

Though Mandy Moore's path to stardom was similar to those followed by other one-time teen sensations such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson, Moore quickly emerged as the most mature and level-headed of the bunch. She scored a few minor hits in a teen-pop/R&B mode before branching out stylistically and releasing an album of diverse covers and an album of original material she wrote herself. Though Moore has never come close to matching the success of her teen pop contemporaries, she's had a notably successful film career and has managed to stay refreshingly controversy-free despite being a paparazzi favorite.

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