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Rumored to be about her breakup with John Stamos and his playboy ways, the darker, synth-ridden “Cold Hearted” serves as a warning to other girls to watch their hearts around him. While you can’t beat “Straight Up” for angst, fifth single “Cold Hearted” takes the trophy for shade. Levitin explained in This is Your Brain on Music, the song is known for “holding a certain appeal over many, many listenings.” The song is catchy, dramatic, and has a perfect dance beat. “Straight Up” still receives radio play, because as Daniel J.
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The single was released a year after the album, selling a million copies within days and skyrocketing the success of Abdul and Forever Your Girl. Done in minor chords with a darker tone, unlike the cheerful promise of the follow-up single “Forever Your Girl” or the Whitney Houston-esque “The Way That You Love Me,” “Straight Up” is Abdul’s unbelievably catchy demand that her lover be honest with her about the state of their relationship. Forever Your Girl wouldn’t have become what it is without Paula Abdul’s most famous song, her third single “Straight Up.” Originally discovered by her mother, “Straight Up” was originally rejected by the studio, but Abdul struck a deal with the powers that be to put it on the album. In an album about love, crushes, and attraction, the standouts touch on darker, angstier notes. If one song makes you want to dance on Abdul’s album, chances are all of them will. While these similarities might seem a little flat, it also makes for a consistent listening experience. That’s not even where the similarities stop, considering all of these songs are about the magnetic pull between two people in a relationship or on the verge of being in one. Pairings “The Way that You Love Me” and the punchier “Opposites Attract (featuring the Wild Pair, as well as MC Skat Cat in the music video), as well as the R&B-leaning “Knocked Out” and the crushworthy “State of Attraction” could swap music with little notice. The instrumentation throughout the album is consistent–perhaps too consistent, as occasionally the songs sound uncomfortably close to one another. Instrumentation on the album trends towards synths, drum machines, and the odd horn here and there. Forever Your Girl is a pop/dance album with a touch of R&B that definitely sounds like it’s from 1988.