'Tightrope' - Stephanie McIntosh (Umtv) Released 25/06/07

Better known to TV audiences as tearaway teen Sky Mangel in long-running Australian soap Neighbours, Stephanie McIntosh is the latest teenage actress attempting to break into the pop scene with her debut album Tightrope.

The fast-paced So Do I Say Sorry First opens the album; an angsty, guitar-pop song-by-numbers that’s more than a little derivative of similar US teen actresses-turned-singers. The title track Tightrope marks itself out from the rest by with an intriguing intro that turns into a shiny pop song that is begging to be a single. The only thing that lets it down is the auto-tune that appears to be dominating McIntosh’s voice, although this won’t deter the kids this record appears to be aimed at.

The few ballads on the album blur together, incorporating sentiments and even melodies that have been played out by teen warblers from Britney to Kelly Clarkson in far more thoughtful and affecting ways. Throughout, McIntosh sounds eerily like American songstress Hilary Duff; the affected US accent is bizarre as she’s Australian and, similarly to Ms Duff, her voice is severely lacking in emotion.

Sadly, God Only Knows is not a cover of a fantastic Beach Boys song, but a sub-par Avril Lavigne off-cut in which McIntosh goes through the motions once more. A later song, Overcome, begins like a Vanessa Carlton track, which further illustrates that there doesn’t appear to be an original idea on this album.

I hate to say it, but Stephanie McIntosh represents everything that is bad about pop music today. An actress shoehorned into a pop singer’s mould, McIntosh is rehashing others’ work, not reinventing it to push pop into the future. As inspiration for this album she has cited her “diverse music tastes” which range “from Robbie to Coldplay to Britney”; judging by the lack of unique ideas on this over-produced record, it seems she needs to widen her horizons if she wants to appeal to an audience above and beyond the teen market.