So as I've mentioned previously on here, I was a top 40 snob when I was a teenager in that the music I preferred was only the stuff that was charting and it's a mentality that I have struggled to rid myself of so what I thought would be fun is to see if albums I listened to as a teenager still hold up for me to this day and I decided to start with "Follow Your Heart" by Nikki Webster (mostly because kind of follows on from last year's 2000 Sound episodes.
Now "Follow Your Heart" was Nikki Webster's debut album and featured the singles "Strawberry Kisses" and "Depend on Me"...two songs I will confess that I don't really revisit all that often but why not revisit them today however we're going to go track by track and begin with...
Strawberry Kisses
Well it makes sense to start the album with your big hit and yeah there's no doubting "Strawberry Kisses" is cute and rather catchy even if the production has not aged as well as you'd remember it and Nikki's "I'll be missing, wishing your strawberry kisses" is kind of creepy now however what redeems the song is that it's ridiculously catchy however there's definitely a reason that I don't revisit this song a lot.
Depend On Me
So when "Follow Your Heart' came out, I liked this song more than "Strawberry Kisses" basically because this song connect for me more than "Strawberry Kisses" ever did and that keyboard and guitar sound good and the lyrics paint Nikki as a shoulder for an upset best friend to cry on but that last line on the hook "Can't you see that's the way best friends should be" kind of doesn't sit well with me for some reason now...ehh...the song is still pretty good.
Mirror Mirror
So this song sonically sounds darker than both the two previous songs but it definitely also sounds like a turn of the millennium pop song. It's also a pretty innocuous song about growing up, learning right from wrong and believing in yourself. It's very typically what's you'd expect from Nikki given when she recorded this she was a pre teen. Again it's fine even if I am not sure if the production works as well as I remembered it when I first the album.
The Best Days
Oh here's the third single from the album and funnily enough it reminds me a lot of Kylie Minogue's "On a Night Like This" with that guitar and much like "Mirror Mirror", its about growing up and being around another person and spending 'the best days' of their lives together. It's a bit corny but I guess kind of have to expect that given on reflection this album is feeling a bit like I am eating large lumps of unrefined sugar.
Boy Inside My Heart
Oof wow...this sounds like a 2000s version of "Wishing on the Same Star" that was recorded by Girlfriend in 1993 and much like that song, this is a piano ballad except written for a schoolgirl as Nikki Webster was at the time and the lyrics are about this boy that Nikki has inside her heart and hoping that he will speak to her or spend time with her because he is that special boy inside Nikki's heart. It's cute but that Girlfriend link isn't going to leave any time soon
Heavenly
A much more upbeat pop song where Nikki sings about everyone being in love and angels teaching Nikki to fly....this was one of those songs that I actually didn't like when I first heard the album as a kid and as an adult I'm reminded of why, the writing never quite connected for me. Pass.
Friends 4 Ever
So this might be the most typically teenage girl song on the album...all about boys, having crushes and spilling other people's secrets to friends but doesn't matter if a guy breaks Nikki's heart because she has her friends 4 ever...given my experience of high school if you go spilling others secrets it can result in some pretty bad fights...Also Nikki is being quite the sweetpea on the second verse by telling this friend that she can have first dibs on the new guy in the school and Nikki won't get in the way. Also hanging out with a 'real bad guy' is probably not a good idea regardless of having your friends or not, Nikki.
Individuality
This was my favourite song on the album when I was twelve so I'm kind of devastated that the production hasn't aged so well with that noise that's kind of shrill and flat. Again it's another aspirational song about being 'true to yourself' and being "who you wanna be and not what the crowd wants you to be'. Kind of a weird song to sing when a record company kind of packages you as something they want to you to be rather than yourself. Also the backing vocals sometimes can be heard of over the top of Nikki at points. Also can that awful flat noise that guides the melody just stop already.
All Come Back
Ahh we're back to that turn of the millennium song about giving and receiving love, the production sounds like something Liberty X or one of those bands might have used. Really it's a pretty standard pop song about it not mattering what you do as long as 'your heart' is true, just give love and you'll get love back. It's still decent.
Red Light, Green Light.
Whoa! This might be the closest to the absolute hormone charged song we get on the album...Nikki sees this guy glancing at her over the shoulder and knows he fancies her, it's a shame she's got to turn his interest in her into a game of "Red Light, Green Light"...red light as in he shouldn't cross her boundaries but when she gives him the green light, he is welcome to kiss her and take it slow. Yeah this hasn't aged as well as I remembered it.
I Will be Your Friend
The second last song on the album is another friendship song and really kind of is a much slower version of "Depend On Me" just with different lyrics and a vow by Nikki that she will be your friend. Then again it probably is one of the better songs on the album but one thing I will stress here: there's no such thing as forever ending unless it was just a creative way to say 'until the world ends' and you didn't want to scare the target audience.
Follow Your Heart
The album closer where Nikki sends out the message over keyboards and drums to everyone everywhere to follow their heart and follow their dreams. It's kind of cute but in that same way that eating way too much sweet stuff can make you feel. "Fairytales come true" sings Nikki (the irony being that there's a song called "Fairytale Believer" on her next album "Bliss"). Look if you like a sugar overdose, this is a song for you...I guess.
Final Thoughts
So yeah that was pretty sugary and I do feel now what my parents must have felt when I listened to the album an awful lot...like I've had a sugar overdose and feel sick...it's definitely an album aimed at pre teens...granted there are songs that still work for me.
Best
Depend on Me, Mirror Mirror, All Come Back
Worst
Individuality, Heavenly
