"Smile" is also the title of Vitamin C's bubbly opening track, which, like the rest of the album, combines infectious modern dance-pop with a subversive lyrical intelligence. Elsewhere on the album, bouncily rhythmic numbers like "Not That Kind of Girl" and "Me, Myself and I" show off Vitamin C's free-spirited rhythmic style, while "Fear of Flying" features an orchestral arrangement and a familiar rhythm borrowed from The Clash's "The Magnificent Seven." A reading of Split Enz's "I Got You" further underlines the artist's pop instincts, while her more wistful, bittersweet side emerges on "Unhappy Anniversary" and the album-closing "Graduation (Friends Forever)."

Under her real name, Fitzpatrick recorded two albums with the New York alt-pop combo Eve's Plum. Her development into a dance-pop style is a logical one, given Fitzpatrick's early background as a dancer.

She admits an affinity for another former dancer, Madonna, whom she cites as a role model: "She has always been able to make good pop records, but with an intensity and intelligence that also hinted there was much more going on."