A Public Affair is a disco-studded, stunningly entertaining, 13-song slab of energetic white-girl pop. From the summer-fizzy first song and title track--which lifts, improbably, from both Madonna and the Supremes--Simpson tears out of the gate refusing to fall back on stale-sounding power ballads, something of a signature in the past. "You Spin Me Round" updates the Dead or Alive '80s hit; the vampy and innovative "B.O.Y." borrows from a vintage Cars track; and "Walkin' 'Round in a Circle," about as sleepy a track as you'll find here, seems to put a kind of pop spit-shine on a tune both Stevie Nicks and Ryan Adams popularized. Later tracks, including the excellent Louis Prima-inspired "Swing with Me" and the shockingly urban-sounding "Fired Up," bring Simpson's inner femme fatale to the fore. Let's hope it doesn't slink away anytime soon--other Simpson discs have been forgettable, but this is an affair to remember. --Tammy La Gorce
