“All The Way Up” is a rock driven pop song about being ready for your time to shine. Emily sings about keeping her suitcase packed because she’s going far. It’s a song about accepting who you are and following your dreams. This would normally be found in a more bubblegum song, but Emily’s got enough edge to her sound here to let you know that she won’t be sugarcoating anything. That being said, this is the safest song on the disc, so I do understand why it was picked as the first single. It is the closest of her songs to her Disney image, and it makes sense that Wind Up Records would try to give her a gradual transition from the Disney world to rock and roll.

“Average Girl” has such an awful story, but it makes for a great song. A girl gets her heartbroken by a guy on Valentine’s Day because he decides he likes someone else better. I like Emily’s description of the other girl: Angelina lips, double zero jeans. That would be the envy of every teenage girl in the States, though I don’t know about the rest of the world, and it makes the “Average Girl” understandably upset. I don’t know if anyone could really describe Emily as “average” though, which might cut the believability a little bit for some people. She has admitted that while she’s never been dumped on Valentine’s Day, the song is based loosely on her own experience. I think I can speak for girls everywhere when I say that if a guy treats you like the guy in the song, you are perfectly entitled to hate him.

“Found Out About You” feels the least pop of all the tracks to me when the song first starts, but it doesn‘t really feel like a rock song either. Maybe it’s because her sound on this harkens back to another generation of female artists. This is a great song about heartbreak and wondering if the other girl gets a better relationship with your ex than you do. I love it. I think Emily captures the feeling of being completely heartbroken in a way that works better than if this was a long and touching ballad.

“I Hate The Homecoming Queen” has universal appeal. After all, what girl hasn’t disliked the Homecoming Queen, or at least someone like the girl portrayed in the lyrics? This song, like “All The Way Up,” is infectious, just begging the listener to sing along. It’s definitely a little bit edgier than her single. I love it. It’s something that I think you can listen to that will never get old. Actually, I think just about everything on the EP has great a great “repeatability” factor. It’s all fun enough that it makes you want to move, but the lyrics are honest enough that it isn’t just dance music.

“You Are The Only One” is one of my favorites from the disc. In terms of its message, it kind of reminds me of Taylor Swift’s song “The Way I Loved You,” but no, the two songs sound nothing alike. Emily’s song is nowhere near the sweet country song. She has a lot more of a rock and roll bite to her than Taylor does. The track is about someone that you care about so much that they are capable of getting under your skin in a way no one else can. It’s definitely a relatable song. It plays to the love-hate relationship that is so common.

“What About Me” claims the honor of being the closing song as well as the slowest track on the EP. It’s the only song that has you swaying instead of tapping your feet. It’s another song about lost love, but it’s different than the others on the disc. Emily has a way of making all of her tracks fresh, even though the same themes have been used in music for generations. Again, I love it. I love the lyrics, the questioning of fairy tale endings, the acknowledgment that scars don’t fade, and the wondering that if one thing was different would the lies have been easier to believe. It’s fantastic.

I might be biased since I was an Emily Osment fan going in, but I think this girl has real talent. The songs are fun to listen to, the lyrics are honest, and she sounds great with the pop-rock vibe. I love that Emily decided not to sign with Hollywood Records (owned by Disney) and not to do the more bubblegum thing that the label is known for. She co-wrote all of the songs on her EP and she got to have more creative control than artists who have never put out an album would normally have. I think that decision really paid off for her. If she had decided to go the more typical route, I don’t think we would have been given an EP that is so full of her. Definitely worth purchasing.