As I listened to the first five songs off of Paula DeAnda's self-titled debut album, I was completely engaged in the melodic beats, with her voice being a perfect fit for the material she decided to record here. She did hit some bumps along the way throughout the last eight tracks, particularly the awful track "I'll Be Down For You," but overall it was quite a nice surprise. Here is a description of some tracks from this CD:

1)Doing Too Much - the opening track, and a nice little tune with a catchy chorus and a little rap from Baby Bash. Very upbeat, and although the lyrics are a little juvenile at times, we've all experienced teenage love at some point.

2)Walk Away - My favorite. WHAT A CHORUS! No surprise, it was co-written by the very talented Christina Milian. Would have been a killer track without the added uh's and uh huh, yeah's (the universal sophisticated language of hip-hop). Could be remixed into a killer trance tune.

3)When it Was Me - Great summertime song, and no guest vocalists either. Sung beautifully, short and sweet. The lyrics will not be confused with Dylan, but the music is on par with the best out there today.

4)Overloved - a ballad written by veteran songriter Diane Warren (who wrote bundles of chart-topping hits in the late 80's and early 90's including "Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne.) Good song to slow the pace of the uptempo songs here.

5)Let's Go Out Tonight - One that will grow on you. DeAnda's breezy vocals wrap around a piano and synth beat that is similar in melody and style to Joe Jackson's "Steppin Out" which is ironic given the title of the song, maybe it was intended to be, I don't know. But a good track regardless. Great music, very simple lyrics.

6)I'll Be Down For You - the album's only terrible track. This is what happens when a young artist delves too deeply into hip-hop territory and tries way too hard to be something she is not.

7)Footprints on My Heart - kind of corny title but a great melody, and passionate vocals (which is not always the case, as DeAnda has a pitch-perfect voice, but has trouble showing her emotions at times.) This track's opening chords are very similar to Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart," again ironic given the title.

So this disc is a worthwhile purchase for fans of pop and lite hip-hop and dance. It won't win any awards for musical sophistication, but that is not the intent on a record like this. Suggestion to Paula for the next album, from a longtime music geek: more dance, less guest rappers. A dance groove similar to Natalie's "Candy" would have put this CD over the top, but as it stands, it is a fine album in its own right. Very enjoyable, as you can pop it in the CD player, let it play, and forget your problems for awhile.

I remember early this summer when I started to see Doin Too Much on Mtv Hits and I thought to myself ok this is a good song but I do not think she could put out a good cd. Well I was totally surprised. This is definitely one of the best debuts I have ever heard. She sounds awesome for her age. Paula sings about everything a 16 year old thinks about. So it should be easy for many teens to like it. I love her version of Overloved. Raven did this song on her debut too. If her record label and her both play their cards right she could have a half decent career as an artist. I am really happy now that I gave in and bought it this album!!!!

I thought this was a pretty good cd. It's very pop, often teeny bopperish, but not annoying. Paula has a pretty good voice and many of the songs are very catchy. Some I liked on the very first listen. This cd was a nice suprise. I only bought it for the song "Doing too Much" because I saw the cd brand new for $7.98 and thought "why not." However, they are many songs on the cd that are very good and as a new comer she did an excellent job. It's far better than most of the crap that has been released lately.

I discovered Paula DeAnda by accident; I turned on MTV Hits one day and saw her video for "Doing Too Much". I was impressed because she has a very good voice; still, like the title says, the song wasn't doing too much and her self-titled album in turn didn't debut at a very high spot on the Billboard 200. But after her second single "Walk Away (Remember Me)" began to grow on me, it renewed my interest in her, so I decided to check her out.

There is a good number of quality songs on here, like "Wanna Be With You", "When It Was Me", and especially "I'll Be Down For You". And "Overloved" is a lot better than most recent Diane Warren songs. The final track, "Footprints On My Heart", is one of those cases where the lyrics look kind of cheesy on paper, but they sound fine when you hear the song.

The thing that brings the album down, though, is that Paula really has a bad choice of guest rappers. At times their verses hurt otherwise great songs, like when the DEY can't even TALK on beat at the beginning of "Walk Away". And I shouldn't have been too surprised about Baby Bash's underwhelming verse on "Doing Too Much" because he's always wack, but another thing about that song is that I don't understand why Paula is doing the exact same adlibs during every chorus past the first verse.

"Easy" features Lil' Wayne saying something about "having more plaques (Plax} than tartar", and although I normally think Ak'Sent is underrated, she kicks a pretty okay verse on "Make `Em Clap to This", which is really just a lazy sample of Rakim's famous line from "Eric B. Is President". Speaking of those two songs, they also prove that maybe Paula should stick to ballads. All in all, this is still a good album, but for her next album she needs to leave the guest stars behind.

Anthony Rupert

If I didn't tell you she's barely sixteen. Seems like with the popularity of Rihanna, JoJo, and now Paula DeAnda, I guess the new popular thing now is young R&B singers. That's cool as long as they can sing, which at least all three of these can do. The main problem I have (more with JoJo than any young singer) is the writing. Most of the lyrics on Paula DeAnda's debut album are slim, and really weak. At least Ne-Yo wrote a few of these, so this album as a whole is tolerable lyrically.

For the most part the album contains of mostly R&B-lite like the two hit signles "Doing Too Much" and "Walk Away (Remember Me)". IF you're looknig for 13 songs that sound exactly like that you'll for the most part be satisfied. "When It Was Me" is similar to these both tracks, with a sweet and sour production and a "when I was that girl trying to make it big" message. At least it's more interesting than most of these tracks. Vocally it is as usual strong and makes a good, overall solid track. "Overloved" carries on the same production, maybe a bit stronger vocally than most tracks on the album. And, yes, it means over-loved, and like I said, you won't find very strong or inspiring lyrics here since the only writer well-known is Ne-Yo, and even then I think he's a bit overrated. "Good Girl" is a wise choice for an old-school R&B song without being too corny with the horns. Lyrically it is pretty average "I thought you could be the one, you're all I need", and that's where the corny comes in, but otherwise nothing makes it skippable. And there's no guest rapper to screw things up. "Wanna Be With You" is kinda average comparing to these other tracks. The production is like others, but seems a bit loopy, and suffers from a ridiculously weak chorus. V Nice (who?!) doesn't help or hurt the song. "Breathe" is much stronger, which is likely going to be a fourth single with it's catchy line "I need some time to breathe" and it's slicked-back old-school somewhat island styled production. Paula sounds great on it and seems very comfortable with it. "Footprints On My Heart" showcases her voice completely and is possibly stronger than "Breathe". It has a slick back production that sounds like it came off of SWV's Greatest Hits. Lyrically it also is better than most other songs on the album. ("I can't take this pain/We had something so beautiful") Still love lyrics but it's better than most and has the catchy title.

There is one last issue other than lyrics that make this only a four star album. Paula DeAnda really needs to stay off club songs and hip-hop, or at least work with some credible producers. The only hip-hop song that shows good is the overly catchy "Easy", and even that can be questionable at times with it's horrible rap by Lil' Wayne that has nothing to do with the song ("I'm already high/Have a gin in the sunset") Huh? It even gets worse with "Make 'Em Clap To This" is terrible wanna-be anthem, and proves DeAnda should be more R&B oriented. The song doesn't even HAVE a chorus, and Ak'Cent is wack as usual. But the album's worst offender is "Let's Go Out Tonight" is another wack song, P.B. is only slightly better than Raven Symone as far as rapping, and Paula DeAnda actually sound uncomfortable on the song herself, as her vocals sond a bit more tense. Kinda killed the song since the production had a good feel to itand like many tracks on the album, was old school.

Paula does need to work with some more writers than Ne-Yo and needs to lay off the unknown (tell me you've heard of P.B. and V Nice) rap guests but overall, a good middle-of-the-road choice for a solid female R&B album. You probably won't find anything that will shock you if the singles hadn't, but you will find some goods R&B cuts and a few vocally great ballads to add to your music collection (as long as you don't mind she's only 16, anyway). 4 stars.

Track Picks:
"Walk Away"
"Easy"
"Breathe"
"Footprints On My Heart"