Sony
2003
Replay
About This Album
Pop-tart quartet Play returns with its sophomore effort, cheekily entitled Replay. But the pop star landscape has changed dramatically in the few short years since the Swedish combo's debut. Just as Faye, Rosie, Anais, and Anna have grown up, their audience has largely moved on to the whip-smart wristband rock of Avril Lavigne and Pink's ground-level dance-punk. Even pop queen Christina Aguilera has shifted, having let her lusty Xtina alter ego out of its bottle for 2002's Stripped. Into this climate comes Replay, which tries to embrace Play's own emerging sexuality in its lyricism and photography, but falls short with unimaginative arrangements that either haven't left the fluffy PG beats of the quartet's (recent) past, or too closely imitate the hot modern R&B of Aguilera and especially Destiny's Child. The sexed-up romping of "Hot" (sample lyric: "I'm a hot girl, you need a hot girl/So hot") is unconvincing, as the track's essentially a rewritten, less groovy "Bootylicious." It's not that the girls in Play aren't ready for that kind of jelly; indeed, their harmonies throughout are flawless, and their voices seem almost too strong for the often wimpy material.
Track List (try tracks 1,2 and 4)

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