Idolator

If you'd told me in January that my end-of-the-year list would contain a Timbaland-assisted morality lecture from a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit guest star, I would have laughed so hard. And yet, here we are.

It's got lyrics that read like the intro to an "Out Of Control Teenagers!" episode of Tyra and a Timbaland-crafted beat that sounds like it's been in mothballs since Aaliyah passed away, but damned if Tiffany Evans' "Girl Gone Wild" wasn't one of the better unheralded R & B singles of the year, with a dark, herky-jerky beat that drags along the former Star Search winner's robo-assisted chastisement of her peers' aspirations toward walk-on roles in Joe Francis productions. (And I have to ask: Why was this not on Shock Value? If anything, adding this track would have reduced that album's insufferable bloat.) Evans released two singles this year, "Wild" and the Ciara-assisted "Promise Ring" (not a paean to the Jade Tree heroes), although like so many other R & B singers this year, her future as far as more singles (or even a label push) is cloudy; at least she's still got the residuals from her SVU stint (re-airing tomorrow night!) to fall back on until that happens, if it ever does.

Tiffany Evans - Girl Gone Wild [YouTube]
Tiffany Evans [MySpace]
Idolator's 2007 Top 40 List Of Awesomeness