Nick Lachey’s What’s Left of Me

A boy without his boy band, Nick Lachey released SoulO in 2003, a collection of forgettable pop songs and power ballads with a bizarre funk edge. A breathy voice doesn’t necessarily make you more soulful and legit, but nobody ever told Lachey or his producers that. So he seemed to sigh and whine his way through the album, which had a title that would’ve been clever if it weren’t attributed to Lachey. I don’t think I ever listened to the thing all the way through, it was so bland. At least 98Ã?° had a few good hooks.

Luckily for Lachey, his marriage to Jessica Simpson and their MTV reality show, Newlyweds, helped buoy his celebrity. Three years and a divorce later comes a sophomore solo effort, the earnest What’s Left of Me, which has the heartbroken singer returning to familiar musical territory minus the cheesy funk effects.

Though Lachey is credited with contributing to the songwriting, he is backed by a slew of collaborators. Whether or not the various songwriting teams consciously drew from Lachey’s tabloid life and over-publicized breakup is unclear. But keeping the autobiographical angle in mind certainly makes the Very Serious album more interesting than it actually is.

What’s Left of Me is filled with homogenized pop and supposedly heartfelt ballads, and the music is mostly uninspired and unmemorable. Even the title track, which also serves as the album’s lead single, lacks the necessary musical punch to make it radio-friendly or even deserve a second listen.

All that listeners are left with to get them through the album, then, are the lyrics, which we hope have something to do with Lachey and Simpson. It would give the album some kind of legitimacy, at least as a cultural artifact-a sort of “DVD extras” but applied to real life.

If this stuff is autobiographical, Lachey is still haunted by his relationship to Simpson and he’s using this music to work through his feelings. Though extremely earnest, the lyrics do show some emotional complexity. In “I Can’t Hate You Anymore,” Lachey sings, “You walked away/You stole my life.” But despite how wronged and broken he feels, he claims, “But no matter how I try/I can’t hate you anymore.” And in “Shades of Blue,” he admits that “The only peace I find/Is pretending that you’re still lying next to me.” (One detects that Lachey may be sly enough to be using “lying” in the context of decpetion as well.)

In “Everywhere but Here,” he croons, “You’re in my head/You’re under my skin/You’re everywhere/But here, but here.” It’s hard not to feel sympathy for the guy and even-gasp!-like him, given Simpson’s alleged extramarital affairs, despite the fact that you’re likely to chuck the album after one listen.

However, there is one successful song on the album. Musically, it’s catchy. Lyrically, it shows that Lachey has some backbone, as well as some bite. “Your pretty face is not enough/Behind your eyes/I know you’re lying,” he accuses in “I Do It for You.” Then:

I want you to burn
I want you to steal
I want you to bleed
And see how it feels

I want you to beg
I want you to crawl
Give more than you take
And smile through it all
And know that everything you do

I do it for you Take that, Jessica Simpson!