Debbie Gibson's first album since 2003’s Colored Lights: The Broadway Album is Ms. Vocalist, a highly conceptual effort that finds Gibson performing English versions of Japanese songs. Appropriately enough, Ms. Vocalist only appeared in Japan but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the songs here are culturally specific; they’re not shibuya kei or J-pop, they’re straight up middle-of-the-road pop, the kind that was inspired by such records as Gibson’s own Out of the Blue. Tempos are never very sprightly here -- occasionally there’s a disco echo but it’s none too loud -- the whole thing unfurls slowly and smoothly. Strangely enough for its title, the album isn’t quite a showcase for Gibson's vocal talents, but rather a slick, seamless piece of product where it’s impossible to hear the individual elements: it's all a clean white wash of sound, designed for backgrounds in Japan but suitable for any waiting room anywhere in the world.