Pieces of Me - About The Record

About The Record

The recording of "Pieces of Me" features in "Valentine's Bummer," the fourth episode of the first season of Simpson's reality show, The Ashlee Simpson Show, and was inspired by Simpson's relationship with the musician Ryan Cabrera, a friend with whom she became romantically involved. As she said, "It was just really nice to be with somebody who's just real and who's nice — just a good person. So I wrote that about him, and when I finished it, I was so excited and so was he." (The two were reported to have broken up in August 2004, while the song was still high on the charts. They soon got back together before breaking up again in early 2005.) In another interview, she said, "It's a feel good song, it's easy to listen to and every time I perform it or listen to it or whatever, ... it just feels good."

Jeff Rothschild played drums on the track, Shanks played guitars and bass, and Simpson and DioGuardi did background vocals. IGN.com said of the song that it "lopes along to a feel good melancholic guitar strum while waxes like any lovelorn 19-year old would about the current love of their life." Another review said that the "stringy" guitar riffs in "Pieces of Me" were "simple, yet effective," with the "catchy chorus bringing the song to life." According to one review of the album, Simpson's singing on the track goes from "impassioned wail to innocent cooing ably." A UK review of the single called it "palatable" "as guitar-led lipstick confessionals go". It has also been described as a "perfect choice" for the album's first single, having "a tempo between fast and slow, with hints of both throughout the song."