Tempest in a D Cup

Is usually estimable New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles chanelling the mercifully departed Kelefa Sanneh?

Cast as the daring rock rebel in the Simpson family reality-show empire, Ashlee Simpson is hardly less plastic than her nice-girl sister, Jessica. Her debacle of a “Saturday Night Live” appearance exposed her as a lip-syncher, and when she’s not singing about her rocker-girl independence, she’s working on Broadway. Lately, she and her fiancé, Pete Wentz, of Fall Out Boy, have been teasing the tabloid media by refusing to confirm or deny pregnancy rumors.

But for Ms. Simpson as a pop contender, none of that matters. On her third album, “Bittersweet World,” the defiant pose — “I just wanna color outside the lines,” she pouts in “Rule Breaker,” sounding about as dangerous as an unruly kindergartner — gives her fertile songwriting territory.

Well, at least he didn't feel compelled to mention Ms. Simpson's Billboard chart history. The song still sucks, of course...