POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death

POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death is the third studio album by Romo, a sequel to her previous album, POPSTAR: The Life & Times Of Belle Ball. It was released November 9, 2009, nine months after the original POPSTAR album. The lead single, "TITS-FM!", was released November 2. POPSTAR 2 marked the first time Romo released an album on the back of just one single rather than two.

POPSTAR 2 picks up where the previous album left off, where Belle Ball committed suicide by hanging. It begins with the funeral of Belle Ball and continues as a 16-year-old girl, who only goes by the first name "Hannah" on the album, follows the footsteps of her idol just as Belle's death takes its toll on the entertainment industry.

POPSTAR 2 became Romo's third consecutive album to enter at #1, giving her her biggest album chart sales week with sales of 102,091 copies. It stands as her highest selling album to date, but failed to yield a #1 single.

Background and recording
Originally, Romo did not want to produce a full-fledged sequel to POPSTAR: The Life & Times Of Belle Ball. After the album was released, she wrote several songs that followed on the story, with the possible intention of releasing an EP with the songs.

The ending of POPSTAR was intended to be open-ended and left for interpretation. But Romo said the lyrics to its closing track, "Dance On My Grave", are definitely indicative of Belle Ball committing suicide, with the final word of the album being, "Dead".

After Romo revealed the ending several times, she began wanting to give Belle a proper sendoff, and so the five-part, ten-minute epic "Funeral" was created, which was partially inspired by the death of Michael Jackson. She built on a concept for another album, which she said she wanted to involve a young star inspired so much by Belle Ball she wants to be her, but take her through even more devastating pitfalls.

Several songs on the album are darker in theme and sound, more comparable to her debut album Eve. Even though Romo came up with several upbeat electropop songs, she wanted to take a darker route because of criticisms that she was starting to become a one-dimensional character. The shift in direction was inspired by recent albums by Alesha, Shell Ruin and Indigo Peak, and served as a precursor to her more experimental turn on Romo.

Hannah
Hannah is the protagonist of POPSTAR 2, meant to follow in the footsteps of her idol, Belle Ball. When Hannah enters the entertainment industry at the age of 16, marketed as a Belle Ball replacement, she faces many of fame's pitfalls at an early age, engaging in underage drinking and child pornography, and becoming a heavy cocaine user. Nude photos of herself she sent to her boyfriend through the practice of "sexting" went viral and caught the attention of police, who arrested her on child pornography charges. Spending time in jail and re-education classes did not turn her around, as she displayed the very same characteristics of Belle through it all. Later on Hannah enters a world where she is free of responsibilities and can do as she pleases, but after becoming the victim of date rape and attempted murder, she accuses several people of the act and ruins innocent lives, resulting in a worldwide backlash against her.

Romo named the character Hannah as a reference to Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel series starring Miley Cyrus, who plays its title character. Like the original POPSTAR album, Hannah's character development on POPSTAR 2 was inspired by real life examples of troubled celebrities; coincidentally, Miley Cyrus would spend most of 2010 attempting to distance herself from the Disney crowd, generating much controversy in the process.

Collaborators
Like her previous two albums, every single song on the album was written and produced or co-produced by Romo. Romo decided not to overload the album with production collaborations like her last one as she focused more on self-sufficiency. She received assistance from Indigo Peak on only three tracks, the lead single "TITS-FM!", "Bathroom Entourage", and "Dirty Vinyl" in which the group contributes guest writing, production, and vocals. "Dirty Vinyl" and "Funeral" (which gives credit to 18th century Englishman John Newton for the use of his hymn "Amazing Grace") are the first songs to appear on any of Romo's albums that give a writing credit to someone besides herself.

Romo included a last minute collaboration with Logan Cross on an alternate reinterpretation of "Bathroom Entourage", which was also released as a B-side to the original version when it was released as a single in May 2010.

Cultural references
Like "Schizo Pop", which included a reference to Romo's debut single "Face For Rehab" and alluded to her lack of interest in her previous direction, songs on POPSTAR 2 refer to Romo's back catalog. "Sucks To Be You" references "Schizo Pop" and "The Carpet Didn't Bleed By Itself", while "Hell Is A Discotheque" contains the line "Go jump off a cliff, Blair!", a reference to POPSTAR 1 album track "If Blair Waldorf Jumped Off A Cliff".

"Funeral" alludes to the deaths of Princess Diana in 1997 and reality TV star Jade Goody in 2009, and its concept was inspired by the June 25, 2009 death of Michael Jackson. Jackson is mentioned by name on "Bait & Switch".

"TITS-FM!" features numerous name-drops and product placements, mentioning Facebook, YouTube, Blackberry, Burberry, Katy Perry, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Choo, Nip/Tuck, and Photobucket.

"Sextuality" was inspired by real-life "sexting" incidents, such as those involving Jesse Logan, a teenager who committed suicide because of the photos, and actress Vanessa Hudgens, who is harshly criticized in the song's coda.

"Los Angeles Is Burning" makes several veiled references to troubled celebrities. The line "The passion faded, like Monroe and James Dean / Replaced by sell-outs and cash-ins who kiss their souls goodbye" is a criticism of Anna Nicole Smith and Heath Ledger, who both died young from drug overdoses and were respectively referred to as the modern day Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Romo says the Pacific Coast Highway is dangerous to anti-Semites, a reference to Mel Gibson's 2006 arrest for driving under the influence on the PCH and subsequent anti-Semitic rant. The reference to "a theater no one will go to / Attending a film that no one will see" was inspired by the movie Zyzzyx Road, infamously remembered for grossing only $30 at the box office.

"Pleasure Island" borrows many elements from the fairy tale Pinocchio, including its title, the theme of "cutting off strings", references to the Fox and the Cat, and the lack of responsibility making "an ass" out of people. The line "Blowjobs have become the new goodnight kiss" was inspired by an ABC News feature about teenagers and oral sex. Romo previously referenced Pinocchio in her single "Schizo Pop".

"I Can Control Your Mind" contains obscure references to Lindsay Belle's "Hail Me Like A Queen" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" (the latter of which was sampled by Miss Drips on her single of the same name in 2005) and name-drops department store chain Wal-Mart and car manufacturer Henry Ford. The line reference to "Katie D's and Cindy V's" came about when Romo wanted to mention two generic-sounding pop star names and used the first two names that showed up on her Facebook online friends list.

Reaction
Reviews of POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death were generally negative, receiving a 32/100 rating from Metacritic based on 11 reviews. Most reviews, however, centered more so on its concept than the actual music, believing Romo should have left POPSTAR alone and not release a sequel since it allowed the listener to use their imaginations as to what follows.

Q criticized Romo for her "unrealistic interpretation of the exploitation of children", which they found surprising considering Romo's take on the subject on her debut album Eve, but praised "Bait & Switch" for portraying the harsh realities of musicians' dealings with record executives and "Hell Is A Discotheque" as one of Romo's career highlights. Most positive or mixed reviews point out "Bait & Switch" and "Hell Is A Discotheque" as the album's best tracks.

Rolling Stone referred to the album as "the musical equivalent of My Girl 2", referring to how the sequels took place after the central characters died in the originals.

Pitchfork Media, which praised the original POPSTAR album and predicted Romo would go on to become the next Alesha, gave POPSTAR 2 a 0.0 rating, believing Romo compromised her artistic integrity and philosophical insight in order to increase her commercial viability. Romo has since fiercely attacked Pitchfork for its perception of narrow-mindedness and disinterest in the commercial pop landscape, addressing the site as "Bitchfork" in her blog spots and frequently putting down the band Animal Collective, who was widely praised by the site and other indie publications in 2009.

While most reviewers expressed praise for the opening track "Funeral" for showing growth in Romo's storytelling ability, closing track "Salem" was harshly criticized for its inconclusiveness and lack of depth, most considering it a step backward from "Dance On My Grave", the closing track on the previous POPSTAR album.

Following the charting of the album's final single "Bathroom Entourage", Romo apologized for releasing the album and vowed to abandon the "fake popstar" concept for her fourth album.

Chart performance
POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death debuted at #1 on the Urapopstar Album Charts on the week of November 15, 2009 with sales of 102,091 copies in its first week. This marked Romo's biggest first-week sales to date, as it was the first time she broke album sales of over 100,000 in a single week. This, along with a second-week sales spike for the lead single "TITS-FM!", eliminated fears that Romo's career was in a downfall following the single's initial chart performance and major losses at Urapopstar Awards 17.

The album has currently sold a total of 1,127,543 copies, enough to be certified diamond. Despite negative reviews and its failure to produce a #1 single, this managed to outsell the original POPSTAR album.

Track listing
Samples
 * "Funeral" contains lyrics from the traditional standard "Amazing Grace", written by John Newton.
 * "Bait & Switch" contains a sample of Type O Negative's "Black No. 1".
 * "I Can Control Your Mind" contains a sample of Madonna's "Why's It So Hard".