Miley Cyrus flip-flops on growing pains

POP

"Breakout"

Miley Cyrus. Hollywood. 12 tracks.

Grade: C-

Miley Cyrus can do many things, but she can't stop aging. Fifteen now, she's gradually taking leave of her 8- to 10-year-old fans — those who adore her as the acting-singing star of the "Hannah Montana" television show and a staple of Radio Disney — and moving toward those discovering lip gloss. She's riding two fast trains at once, a musical-dramatic-corporate feat of balance.

It comes down to fewer pink tops and more gray thoughts. On "Breakout," her first stand-alone album under her real name, she eases up on songs with total-affirmation chants about being the captain of her ship. Instead here are sweetened pop-punk odes of contradictory emotions, circular thinking, pots outrageously calling kettles black. The lyrics are half-terrible — almost too realistic as teenage thoughts — but the best of them transmit the desired message. Which is that she wants total boy commitment, and she also needs some space.

It's a lackluster album, floated by two or three strong singles. "7 Things," released in May, lists with talky insecurity what she hates about a guy. (The list cleverly runs eight to 11 things, depending on how you parse it.) One is his insecurity. Another is "You love me, you like her." Then her fully post-preteen request for a sincere apology: "When you mean it, I'll believe it/if you text it, I'll delete it." Inevitably there follow the seven things she likes, a shameless Disney ending.

But a few tracks later, in "Fly on the Wall," she's bullying some poor boy, with Pussycat Dolls relish, for the sin of wanting to know what she talks about with her friends. Her voice is a generous, full-throated holler, with surprisingly deep range for a girl, but in mean mode it becomes pinched and stingy. Obviously the turnabout is hypocritical. Obviously it's teen-accurate.

With one exception — "Full Circle," with its excellent hooks and nebulous I-can't-quit-you words — these tracks are as good as the lyric conceits of their choruses. When the narratives grow too interior, as on "Driveway" or "These Four Walls" or "Simple Song" (which borrows some phrasing from the chorus of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated"), it's as if the production and songwriting battalion called it a day a little early.

Much of the music comes with clattering, tempo-pushing Dave Grohl-ish rock drums (some of it played by Josh Freese, of A Perfect Circle) and distorted and shiny electric guitars. For variety there's a watery slow-jam, "Bottom of the Ocean," and a ditzy cry for the environment, "Wake Up America," complete with cheerleader chorus. Then there are the simple-message tracks for the younger set, including an overblown, synthetic-orchestra-and-rock-band version of Cyndi Lauper's hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

But "Breakout," the title track, appeals to both age groups. It's a girls-only call to fun, but it hints at a decadent, school-free future. "My friends and the mess we get into/These are the lessons we choose," she sings. "Not a book full of things we'll never use."

— Ben Ratliff, New York Times

BLUES

Buddy Guy, 72, improves with time

"Skin Deep"

Buddy Guy. Silvertone/Zomba. 12 tracks.

Grade: A-

At 72 years old, Buddy Guy may just be getting warmed up.

Along with B.B. King, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana and others, he recently showed up on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's feature on the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" (for his 1961 recording "Stone Crazy"). He turned in a torrid performance in the Rolling Stones' concert film "Shine a Light," and he's released this excellent new album, filled with top-of-the-line guest contributors.

With tongue in cheek, Guy sings lines like "I can make a bulldog kiss a pussycat," in the blistering "Best Damn Fool, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer sets the stage for other searing originals such as his pairing with Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi on "Too Many Tears," and the very tasty tandem with Eric Clapton on "Every Time I Sing The Blues."

Guy offers a roll call of blues guitar greats like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon in the roadhouse blues of "Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes," gets lusty on the playful "I Found Happiness" and has the juke joint jumpin' on the piano-pounding "Show Me The Money." Still, when all is said and done, it's the heartfelt title track, with its conciliatory tone towards race relations that strikes the deepest chord.

— Kevin O'Hare, Newhouse News Service

ALSO OUT

•Actor Danny Aiello tries his hand at music with "Live From Atlantic City."

•North Carolina's Avett Brothers return with a new acoustic EP, "The Second Gleam."

•Comedian Larry the Cable Guy shares his "Morning Constitutions."

•The deluxe fan edition of Sugarland's "Love on the Inside" is released and includes bonus material that won't be found on next week's regular release from the Atlanta country duo.

•Former Jam frontman Paul Weller continues his long solo career with "22 Dreams."

•Jon Peter Lewis, a former "American Idol" contestant, releases "Break the Silence."

•Seattle rock band Candlebox is back with "Into the Sun," its first album in 10 years.

•"Dreams of Breathing Underwater" is the latest from British folk royalty Eliza Carthy.

COMING NEXT TUESDAY

• New albums from Coolio, Steve Cropper and Felix Cavaliere, Alice Cooper, Greta Gaines, Soulfly, Rick Springfield and Atlanta Christian rockers Third Day.

— Shane Harrison