Kelly Osbourne - you might have heard of her. Daughter of the 'Prince of F*cking Darkness™', a sort of red and black wonky bowl thing going on hairwise, World championship swearer, fabulous dresser and now, like, rock star.
Inspiration to all awkward, misunderstood, painting-bedroom-black teens everywhere, who don't want to relate to Christina's arse or mini-Morrisette Avril Lavigne's brat angst, 'Shut Up' has more in common with Hole and Blondie and shows up something rotten in the Prince William-hears-Blink 182 unpleasantness that is Busted. And as Kelly sings on 'Coolhead' - "I'm not here for your amusement" - you know that she actually means it (man). Think about it, if you'd grown up surrounded by people who thought your dad ate bats, you'd have an attitude too.
The title track and current single 'Shut Up' gives a false impression of the rest of the album - fine, snotty and precocious it may be - but a whole album of it would've been hard to stomach, and worse, would be in danger of placing Kelly on the musical evolutionary scale beneath Shampoo. Look beyond that and you get a cracking collection of new wave Buffy-punk-pop: Ace opener 'Disconnected' sounds like Kim Wilde's 'Kids In America' on multi-track fire, inventing stadium garage in the process, the shouty 'Come Dig Me Out' is about being buried alive, which is as near to her dad's 'ouevre' as she gets, and 'On Your Own' is metaltastic Strokes.
The lighter-waving moment comes in the form of 'More Than Life Itself', written about her mum - the formidable Sharon - and spectacularly fails to turn into a cheesy schmaltzy blub-fest. You want power ballads? Look elsewhere. Even with Top Five smash 'Papa Don't Preach' as - mystifyingly - a 'hidden' track (probably seen as a bit embarrassing and retarded now) this first, and probably only album, is a neat summation of what makes Ms Osbourne tick.
It'll piss off her sister, give her brother plenty to get stroppy about, but is unlikely to gain her a slot at Daddy's Ozzfest. However, 'Shut Up' is better than you may at first think. If she doesn't take her own advice, Kelly will be the first proper superstar to have gained fame through the monster that is reality TV.
