The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Big Hurt  |  CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Jazz  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Smoosh

Free to Stay | Barsuk
By SHARON STEEL  |  August 8, 2006
3.0 3.0 Stars
Earlier this year, Hilary Duff told Elle that she pities critics who don’t adore her. “A song like ‘Wake Up’ is not for a 50-year-old man with arthritis who doesn’t want to get out of bed,” she sassed. Sister duo Smoosh are not so much younger than the 18-year-old tween princess. Duff, however, owns her own home and has a team of stylists to go with her tattoo’d rocker boyfriend. Smoosh (12-year-old drummer Chloe and her 14-year-old sis Asya on keyboards and vocals) live with their parents. And even with two albums under their collective belt (not to mention opening for Pearl Jam), they’re still on soccer teams. For these girls, being in a band is an extracurricular activity, not a career. Given that they’re free of label pressures, is it surprising that their simple, infectious duets are more blissed out than any of Duff’s anti-rheumatic anthems? Free To Stay is all about hyper, exuberant tunes as accessible to Kidz Bop kids as they are to parents. And Smoosh don’t seem to be worried about speeding toward adulthood. That much is obvious from Chloe’s plucky drumbeats and Asya’s hearty recommendations to “Figure you out, find yourself” on “Find a Way.” Sexed-up singles and red carpets can wait: Smoosh are growing up at their own pace.
Related: Finding dignity, Busdriver | Jhelli Beam, The Duff connection, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Pearl Jam, Hilary Duff
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/18 ]   "Boston Facial Hair Fiasco!"  @ Church of Boston
[ 02/18 ]   Cuffs + Woollen Kits + Headband  @ Plough & Stars
[ 02/18 ]   The Ducky Boys + Hudson Falcons + Energy  @ Great Scott
ARTICLES BY SHARON STEEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   EUGENIDES'S UPDATED AUSTEN  |  October 12, 2011
    For his long-awaited third novel, Jeffrey Eugenides goes back to look at love in the '80s — and apparently decides that it's a lot like love in the early 19th century.
  •   REVIEW: RINGER  |  September 08, 2011
    Sixty seconds into the CW's new psychological thriller Ringer, star Sarah Michelle Gellar is seen running from a masked attacker in the darkness.
  •   LOVE'S LEXICOGRAPHER  |  February 10, 2011
    As the editorial director at Scholastic, David Levithan is surrounded by emotional stories about adolescents. Being overexposed to such hyperbolic feelings about feelings could easily turn a writer off pursuing such ventures himself — despite the secrets he may have picked up along the way.  
  •   REVIEW: MTV'S ''SKINS''  |  January 26, 2011
    MTV has rated its new Skins TV-MA LDS - which in plain English means teenagers smoking weed, popping pills, fucking each other, and having emotional breakdowns in a scripted show that MTV would like us to think is designed to be viewed by adults.
  •   GIRLS TALK  |  June 20, 2010
    There's only one thing more dangerous than being an ambitious, attractive twentysomething female stumbling through the publishing industry, attempting to secure quantifiable career success and, also, a fantastic boyfriend: the impulse to write about it.

 See all articles by: SHARON STEEL

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed