Michelle Branch: Hotel Paper

SO BEGINS THE SECOND ROUND OF SHEMO. With a live disc in the works for Avril Lavigne and the next full length presumably in the works for Vanessa Carlton (taking bets now for how far this might fall outside of the Billboard Top 200), Michelle Branch checks in with the second blow of the first wave of next-generation female pop stars. And while the Backstreet Boys and Britney seem long gone from the pop music landscape, Branch still seems intent on fighting against what she regards as bad music. This time she aims even younger — skewering Hillary Duff in a recent Rolling Stone profile, leading her to ask "Oh, man, what is going on with music these days?"