Tuesday, July 22nd 2008, 4:00 AM
Miley Cyrus
Cyrus' new album
MILEY CYRUS. "Breakout" (Hollywood Records)
Miley Cyrus commits a capital crime on her new CD: She murders her own TV character, Hannah Montana, so she can finally, fully become herself.
Anyone who is not a girl between the ages of 6 and 9 - or who doesn't live in a house with one - will need a little bit of an explanation here. Functioning as the most schizophrenic teen idol since Patty Duke played two roles on her '60s TV show, Ms. Cyrus appears as both herself and as her secret "rock star" persona, Hannah Montana, on the like-named Disney Channel smash.
In a marketing scheme as shrewdly planned as a military campaign, Disney first had Cyrus record a CD entirely under the "Hannah" character name in '06. Then they put out a two-album transitional work, with one disk yapped by "Hannah," the other by Miley.
Now for the new CD, titled "Breakout" (get it?), it's all Miley all the time. More, they've released it not on the namby-pamby Disney wing of the company but on their more grown-up Hollywood Records imprint.
At least that's the stated plan.
Anyone expecting the new CD to offer something more adult - like, say, a sonic corollary to Cyrus' controversial semi-incestuous/kinda nude shot in Vanity Fair with her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus - will be sorely disappointed. "Breakout" sounds amazingly like any other "Hannah/Miley" project, rife with scrappy little faux-rockers that suggest Avril Lavigne for the juice-box set. If the album means to age Cyrus' core audience, it's likely to nudge it only from 9 to 12, tops.
Then again, there may be nuances I'm not getting here. An adult would need the sonic equivalent to the world's most powerful electron microscope to tell the difference between the Hannah and Miley songs to begin with.
Let's see: Hannah is a cheeky scamp who sings sneery little rockers in a blond wig. Miley is a cheeky scamp who sings sneery little rockers while sporting her own auburn hair. The only difference detectable this time is that the old Miley/Hannah hybrid actually sounded slightly edgier than full-tilt Miley. Blurrier production, and added echo, numbs even more of the impact.
To be fair, Ms. Cyrus owns a serviceably energetic voice, and the songs penned for her are passably catchy. No doubt they'll inspire screeches throughout the nation's entire elementary school system. There's even a bit of social commentary this time, via a pro-ecology song ("Wake Up America"), though for some reason Miley sings it like it's just another answer-back song.
Either way, there's no getting around the fact that Miley has historical value. She's the first moderately defiant rocker ever marketed to a demo this pink. More than girl power, this is brat power, in the process incubating an entire generation of potential Courtney Loves. You decide if that's progress.
