ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Timbaland revisits his stompy, loopy, Nelly Furtado-approved template on the latest song to snake out from Ashlee Simpson’s forthcoming album, and… well, he certainly figured out a way to get around the fact that Ashlee’s drunk-sorority-girl voice isn’t really her strongest suit. The song opens with her yelling “Whut,” although thanks to the lousy audio quality it sounds like she’s yelling “War,” a la Edwin Starr. (Now that would be a cover.) From there, you go into what’s essentially “Maneater 2.0,” complete with Ashlee squeezing out half-spoken lyrics and a chorus where she unwisely decides to use her voice as a percussive element, singing “ah-ya-ya-ya-ya” and berating whoever she’s mad at for “talking way too much.” Perhaps she doesn’t realize that the object of her ire may be gabbing in an attempt to drown out her singing?
On a business-of-music note: “Leaking” this track today and not making it available for sale until Dec. 11? Sure, that explains the bad-cell-phone audio quality on the AOL stream, but forcing delayed gratification on consumers is not really the best way to encourage those people who for whatever reason will want to hear this song again to pick it up through legal methods. Oh, record industry. Will you ever learn?