He's not a kid anymore
Former teen dream Jesse McCartney is ready for 'Departure' - and hopes his fans come for the ride
This is the kind of stuff that gives the parents of tween girls nightmares. In 2004, teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney was a mainstay on Radio Disney with a sweet little pop song extolling the virtues of a girl's "beautiful soul." In the video the most scandalous thing the bleach-blond, fresh-scrubbed Jesse and his friends did was drink some milk from the jug before paying for it.
In 2008, 21-year-old Jesse McCartney is burning up Top 40 radio with a sultry dance-floor come-on in which he tries to persuade a girl to leave her man by promising to keep her "singing all night." And he's not talking about choir practice. In the video a brown-haired, shirt-unbuttoned-down-to-here McCartney examines the contours of an underwear-clad model on a chair, a mattress, and in a back seat.
His new album, out Tuesday, is not called "Departure" for nothing.
"I think it is just the natural progression of things. As you get older, the content is going to get older and this record was written for a 21-year-old," McCartney says of his newly slick, urbanized sound on the phone from Los Angeles. (He's on his way to record a PG version of "Leavin' " for Radio Disney. "I'd like to keep them on my good side," he says with a laugh.)
You can also hear McCartney's new direction in Leona Lewis's No. 1 hit, "Bleeding Love," which McCartney co-wrote with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. "I think it shocked some people, and it opened up some doors and the timing was perfect," says McCartney, who clearly hopes the same will be true of "Departure."
In his quest to grow up musically, McCartney, who plays the sold-out Kiss Concert Sunday at the Tweeter Center, sought out the cream of the current crop of producer-songwriters.
"I actually did my research," McCartney says of collaborators such as Tricky and The-Dream, JR Rotem, and Sean Garrett. Even though there has always been a soul undercurrent to his style, the New York native consciously chose to take the trendy route on "Departure" by combining vintage '80s synth sounds of acts like Michael Jackson and Madonna with contemporary production flourishes that are both silky and acoustic and chilly and electronic.
"Going into this record knowing the overall sound I had in mind, I knew that these people were the best in this world of rhythmic R&B music," McCartney says. "So I made a shopping list . . . and I was really, really, pleasantly surprised and humbled to find out that these guys were into it."
He admits that it "definitely took a minute" to convince them that the young man who once toiled as a fifth of the prepubescent boy band Dream Street and starred as a brooding teen surfer on the WB soap "Summerland" was ready to join the post-"FutureSex/LoveSounds" revolution.
"I didn't come on board until I felt like he was really serious," says Garrett, who was partially responsible for huge hits like Usher's "Yeah!," Chris Brown's "Run It!," and "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls. "I heard some of the records and I was like, 'OK, we're going to go in there and do something special.' "
McCartney had written or co-written most of the songs on his previous two albums but admits that sometimes youthful arrogance or distractions got in the way of producing the results he wanted. With a self-effacing laugh, he refers to his second album, 2006's "Right Where You Want Me," as a kind "musical puberty."
"[On] the last record I felt like I was fighting the grain a little bit. I was being told that I was one thing when I was really confident in my writing, and I maybe got a little too confident where I decided I was going to write the whole album," says McCartney. "I feel like with this new record, when working with other writers, especially the caliber of writers I worked with, they are able to stand outside your box and bring a fresh perspective."
Garrett, who is also the featured rapper on "Rock You," was impressed by McCartney's note-taking enthusiasm and the growth of his voice since his debut. (The singer and voice-over actor - who recently voiced characters in the films "Horton Hears a Who" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" - has been working on expanding his range with legendary vocal coach Seth Riggs.) "Sometimes you get the stigma kiddie title when you're part of Disney," says Garrett. "But I feel like everyone deserves an opportunity to grow."
McCartney also feels more equipped as a writer and a young man to express himself lyrically about romance as he does on "Departure," finding, losing, pining for, and griping about love. "Being in and out of relationships and dealing with women," says McCartney, "it's been interesting to say the least."
Fans have certainly been interested, be they longtime listeners or 20-somethings unfamiliar with McCartney's Disney past. In its second week of release, "Leavin' " has hit the top 20 on the Billboard pop singles chart.
"His fans that are his age will grow and mature with him, and they'll get to a point that if the songs are good, they'll stay with him and if not, they'll move on," says Chris Tyler, program director at Kiss 108 and JAM'N 94.5. "The bottom line is it's all about putting out good songs that fit who you are. The audience is smarter than people probably think. If he puts out some material that might sound like a stretch it's not going to go over well. But this stuff doesn't sound like a stretch - it sounds like a young artist who's maturing."
Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.
