THE COLOR OF SILENCE

Tiffany
(Backroom/ Zomba/ Jive/ Universal)

RATING: three and a half

There are a number of things that I used to do that I’m deeply ashamed of now—and the entirety of the 80s falls into that category. Yes, I’m deeply sorry that I dressed up in Punky Brewster fashion, that I dissolved the ozone layer with Aqua Net hair spray, that I swore up and down that A-Ha were going to be my favorite band forever.

But let me tell you something else: I listened to Tiffany, and I refuse to be ashamed of that. I remember lying in bed, plugged into my Walkman, and listening as the joyful strains of “I Think We’re Alone Now” filled my ears and lifted my soul. As a love song, it has the depth and artistic value of a crayon drawing, but, hey, I was in early elementary school.

The red-haired freckle-faced precursor to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera has long since faded away, but as fate would have it, she’s not the E! True Hollywood Story fodder that we thought she’d be. Living a happy, married, suburban existence, Tiffany (still without a last name) has since made a couple of albums after her stint at center stage, none of them making much of an impression, and the last one released only for Asian markets.

All this would make a bland “Where Are They Now?” installment, save for the release of The Color of Silence, an album that presents a rejuvenated, updated Tiffany for 2001.
If you’re expecting drippy, teenyboppy stuff, you’re in for a huge surprise. With tracks like “Piss U Off” and “I Will Not Breakdown” (sic) The Color of Silence is spiritually closer to Jagged Little Pill than Oops…I Did it Again. Who’d ever have thought that the mall-tour queen was secretly listening to Melissa Etheridge during her time off?

The album’s first track, “Open my Eyes,” opens gracefully, primly and properly, just as you’d expect from a former teen princess—but it dissolves into a pop-rock beat that surprises and captivates. If you used to listen to Tiffany, believe me, you won’t see this coming. Tiffany’s voice has matured, though it has lost the interesting teenage rasp that distinguished her from her peers (think Debbie Gibson). But what she lost in vocal edge, she’s more than made up for in song quality. Take for example “I’m Not Sleeping,” which offers up a whiff of menace and guest vocals by rapper Krayzie Bone, which is a far more interesting song than Tiffany’s ever done—and, really, more than we all thought she was capable of.

Not that the album is without its faults. There are 16 songs on the Color of Silence (13 regular tracks, plus three bonuses), not all of them sweet. The album is front-loaded, with most of the highlights placed out front, and the latter half full of throwaway cuts that sound more like pop doodles than real songs. Ghosts of the old Tiffany resurface starting from about track five, which is around the same place where the album begins to slowly disintegrate. With the exception of the quirky “Cinnamon” and, to a lesser degree, the hard-edged “Butterfly,” the rest of the tracks are forgettable.

It’s certainly not shaping up to be a commercial hit: the album has been out in the US since last year, and has made no splash. Still, Color of Silence is an impressive comeback for Tiffany—it’s so refreshing to hear an old dog show up with a few new tricks, no?—Kristine Fonacier