Critical Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Billboard | |
| Blender | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (Cā) |
| The Guardian | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| The New York Times | |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Slant Magazine | |
Initial critical response to I Am Me ranged from mixed to unfavourable. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 43, based on 13 reviews.
A BBC review of the album was positive, calling it "confident yet searching" and saying that it "flirts with 80s production throughout and produces a more mature, tighter sound than some of her peers." Stylus also gave it a favorable review; while saying that it "isn't as consistently strong a record as Autobiography", it calls I Am Me "more-than-respectable" and "a very good record". Another review called it "a solid pop/rock album" with strong songwriting that "should go far to re-establish Ashlee Simpson as a legitimate artist", giving it three-and-a-half stars (out of five).
Rolling Stone gave it a negative review, rating it slightly lower than it had previously rated Autobiography: I Am Me received one-and-a-half stars, while Autobiography received two (out of five). The Rolling Stone review called the album "a collection of eleven soulless tunes that fail to even qualify as guilty pleasures" and said that "in venturing to offer something for everyone, Simpson offers nothing for anyone." Allmusic also gave the album a negative assessment (and a rating of two stars out of five), saying that "unlike Autobiography, this simply is no rock & roll fun ā the songs aren't catchy, the attitude is dour, the productions are cold and distant, all highlighting the deficiencies in Ashlee Simpson as a singer, while burying the likeable persona she had on both her debut and her MTV show." Blender said that, in comparison to Autobiography, "the songs are soggier, the sentiments more banal", and calls I Am Me a "sophomore slump", giving it two out of five stars.
Another review called the album "solid but unspectacular", crediting Simpson with going "in directions that Avril Lavigne has never thought of" but wishing that Simpson displayed more "obnoxious grit" on the album.
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