Print this article E-mail this article More articles by this author

Release Date: October 27, 2009 Label: Wind-Up Records Related Sites: · Official Site Grade: B

Emily Osment emerges from the shadow of Lilly Truscott and the Hannah Montana franchise to reveal her true self on the debut EP All the Right Wrongs, and, well, her life is kind of depressing.  On the other hand, it's a refreshing dose of reality as she shares the same joys and (mostly) pains of the teenage experience. It's the culmination of over two years of collaboration with noted songwriters Matt Bair and Tim Pagnotta, along with the Plain White T's' Tom Higgenson, and Eve 6's Max Collins and Tony Fagenson. Produced by Matt Squire (Taking Back Sunday, Panic! at the Disco, Boys Like Girls), the set maintains a frisky pace.

"I want my rock 'n' roll to make the windows shake" Emily professes on the rocking opener, "All the Way Up."  With pounding drums and thick guitar riffs, the anthem elucidates Emily's theme to "never look back, it's time to breakout."  Up to this point her musical output has been strictly teen pop of the manufactured Disney variety, and that's still very much an influence here, but there is also the indication of a world of rock and punk beyond the Magic Kingdom.  Track number one also features the proverbial good news and bad news.  The bad is that the final chorus and outro is an orgasm of Auto-Tune, and the good is that this is last time you will experience this ghastly technology on the record.

Emily Osment prepares to step outside the comfort of her Disney home to forge her musical identity.

In "Found Out About You" poor Emily's dream relationship ("We were picture perfect/Flawless on the surface/We were walking on a straight line") changes upon an unhappy observation ("It feels like a nightmare/To see your hands in her hair/You seem happy ever after/I'm stuck in denial"). The verses sounds a bit like Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" and Emily further emulates the Canadian songstress by slipping in a descriptive "damn" to express her hurt.

Swearing continues -- this time in the chorus of "I Hate the Homecoming Queen" ("I'm pretty damn sure she can't stand me") -- but I'm confident with experience the budding songwriter will learn to articulate emotions in a more creative manner. This speedy tune approximates the pop-punk of a Paramore or Bowling for Soup.

Closing out the album is an '80s-era arrangement on "You Are the Only One" that explores the flips and flops of teenage love. It is the most impressive vocal delivery of the set, as Emily sings harmony with herself in spirited concord. With all due respect to Moving Pictures, "What About Me" is a different power ballad contemplating a relationship now ended ("What about fairy tale endings?") featuring an acoustic guitar beginning building to a key-changing muscular conclusion.

All the Right Wrongs succeeds on sheer spunk. Emily's voice is affable though still firmly adolescent, and despite the occasional odd pronunciation it elevates the snappy material beyond the realm of mere sonic confection. Pleasantly, she seems to have lost the nasal quality that can be heard on previous Disney endeavors including "I Don't Think About It" (from R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It), "Hero In Me" (from "Dadnapped"), "Once Upon a Dream" (From the album Princess Disneymania) or her duet with Mitchel Musso on "If I Didn't Have You" (from Disneymania 6). She has branched out from Disney on film ("Soccer Mom") and this project ought to do as well for her music career as it has for that other girl from Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus.