This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“I’m screaming for attention,” announces Kelly Osbourne on her debut album — as if you didn’t know. But even if you’re getting as fed up with her desperately dysfunctional clan as most of us are, give Kel the benefit of the doubt before you bite her head off and write off Shut Up as just another crass Osbournes tie-in.
OK, she’s no Joni Mitchell — but considering this album wasn’t even a glint in a marketing executive’s eye a year ago, Kelly’s pulled off a pretty neat trick. Shut Up is a big, pink, sugary wad of lip-smacking teenage bubble-punk, with all the snappy choruses, snotty lyrics, groovy grooves and hooky hooks that entails. Crunching firecrackers like Disconnected, Shut Up, Coolhead and the boogie-rocker (!) Everything’s Alright walk a tightrope between the radio-ready pop smarts of The Go-Go’s and the tough-chick of The Donnas and Runaways. And even though I’d bet my paycheque that her vocals have been pitch-corrected and multi-tracked and sweetened to the max, so what? Shut Up still rocks. She deserves all the attention she can get.
