Title: Aaron's Party (Come Get It)
Source: The Morning Call (Allentown)
Source: ENTERTAINMENT, Pg. A53
Author: Len Righi
Date: November 25, 2000
Topic: Aaron's Party Album Review
He's from Florida and he's as cute as a dimpled ballot. But that's not the only reason that, if you're older than 12, you'll feel an overwhelming urge to punch him. He's the 12-year-old kid brother of the Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter. His mom (and co-manager) wrote his just-published biography, "Aaron Carter: The Little Prince of Pop" (Onyx paperback, $9.95). Plus, he's in the midst of a media blitz that includes Nickelodeon, Wal-Mart stores and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Actually "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" is AC's second disc; his debut, released overseas, has sold more than 1 million. The slickly assembled "Aaron's Party" should easily do as well as his first. There are bubblegum rap tracks such as the title cut, an unholy ripoff of the Sugarhill Gang, and "That's How I Beat Shaq," which "borrows" an idea the young Will Smith had concerning Michael Jordan back in the day. There's computer-squiggle pop funk, such as "My Internet Girl," with its idiotic "ohhhhhh!!!!" backing; bleached soul, in the rinky-dink "Tell Me What You Want," and pop remakes such as "I Want Candy," with the sexual implications scrubbed cleaner than AC's complexion, and less successfully, the hip-moving "Iko Iko." There are even brief skits sprinkled throughout, one where AC has the temerity to rip off Jack Nicholson's restaurant confrontation in "Five Easy Pieces"! Lest you think I'm being too hard on the lad, let me say "Girl You Shine," a guileless pledge of perpetual affection, can touch even a 50-year-old skeptic. But I don't blame AC for the ACs of the world. I blame their parents.
