An American singer-songwriter from New York, who released her debut album at age 16.

tek's rating:

Electric Youth
AllMusic; Amazon; Apple Music; Cherry Red Records; Discogs; Spotify; Wikipedia

This is Gibson's second album, released in 1989. It was first released on cassette, but I have it on a CD, which includes two bonus tracks that weren't on the cassette. It was probably one of the earliest CDs I owned. I'm reviewing it in 2024. A deluxe edition, which I don't have, was released in 2021. The liner notes contain song lyrics.

1. "Who Loves Ya Baby?": I didn't remember this before I listened to the CD, but once I did, it was familiar to me, and nothing like I would have guessed it would be. I like it kind of a lot.

2. "Lost in Your Eyes": This is the first single off the album, and I suppose one of the main reasons I bought it. It's a really pretty ballad.

3. "Love in Disguise": It's okay.

4. "Helplessly in Love": It's fairly good.

5. "Silence Speaks (a Thousand Words)": It's okay.

6. "Should've Been the One": Well, it sounds good, but it feels kind of stalkery, to me.

7. "Electric Youth": This is the second single, and another big reason for buying the album. It starts with a nice riff, then the music changes, and the opening line "Zappin' it to ya" sounds kind of cheesy to me. But I still really like the song. Very peppy, and I appreciate the celebration of youth... not in the sense of being young being better than being old, but just in the sense that being young doesn't automatically make you in any way lesser than being an adult. Know what I mean?

8. "No More Rhyme": The third single. It's okay.

9. "Over the Wall": It's okay.

10. "We Could Be Together": The fourth single. It's nice.

11. "Shades of the Past": This sounds less familiar to me than anything else on the album. It's not bad, but it's probably my least favorite song on the album.

12. "We Could Be Together (Campfire Mix)": It has a nice, stripped-down sound, but there's still an echo effect. It also has some nice harmonizing. I like it, but it feels a little unnecessary, after listening to the same song just a few minutes ago.

13. "No More Rhyme (Acoustic Mix)": I don't even notice a difference from the regular version of this song, but maybe I would if I had just listened to that song. I forget things pretty easily. Whatever, it's still not bad, but unnecessary.

Well, I wasn't sure how well the album would hold up, but I think it does. I still really like Gibson's voice on every song. It feels less dated than I thought it would, though it's still obviously a product of its time.