Electric Youth Astoria NY

Electric Youth

Debbie Gibson

Atlantic Records, 1989

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/14/1999

There are a whole slew of albums in the Pierce Memorial Archivethat I bought for some reason or another that seemed like a goodone at the time. Now, as I walk through the aisles, I wonder justwhy I bought them in the first place.

Take Debbie Gibson. When she was at the pinnacle of her fame, Iwas in high school, happily banging my head to all things metal. Wemacho men wouldn't have been caught dead even looking at one of heralbums at Sound Warehouse, much less owning one - we were just toocool for that.

So how do I explain having an album like her 1989 sophomoreeffort Electric Youth in my collection? Better still, how do Iexplain at the 10-year reunion later this year that there are somesongs on it that I enjoy?

Gibson had rocketed to fame with her debut effort Out Of The Blue, containing syrupy-sweet but mostly harmlessdance-pop mall rock. With her second release, she starts to injecta little more maturity into the music, but the end result is stillthe same.