Miley Cyrus Scandal : The Hannah Montana phenomenon should not be underestimated!!!!!

The phenomenon that is Hannah Montana should not be underestimated. It is vast, all-encompassing and ongoing. But even as she signs in for another season of the smash hit TV show about a regular teenage girl who moonlights as a pop star, Miley Cyrus is looking ahead. Which means setting herself up for the post-Hannah Montana career. Hey, when you're 15 years old, you gotta think of your future.

So, after releasing two albums as her TV alter-ego (well, 11/2 albums, technically - the 2007 double CD Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus featured one disc from each of her personae), Cyrus steps out, all on her own, as a solo artist.

But she's hardly leaving it all behind. While Cyrus claims this is a more mature album, it remains generic teen pop, through and through. Even Avril Lavigne seems edgy by comparison. Fans of Hillary Duff, listen up.

Cyrus's concerns are set out from the opening title track: "Every week's the same / Stuck in school's so lame / My parents say that I'm lazy / Getting up at 8 a.m.'s crazy."

The pop-punky first single, 7 Things, is a breakup song (one of many) that scratches the surface just enough to allude to an alleged relationship ("You make me laugh you make me cry / I don't know which side to buy"), without getting into details. Power-ballad The Driveway follows suit. This is cookie-cutter, multi-format radio pop for Hannah Montana fans who are starting to look for something - but not much - more in their music.

Most won't get the reference in Cyrus's uptempo, orchestrally enhanced but spontaneity-challenged cover of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Fly on the Wall is powered with vapid electro-pop raunch; Bottom of the Ocean is a lush, '80s-tinged tearjerker; Wake Up America tackles global warming to a cheeky riff-rock backdrop; These 4 Walls has a country twang; and the remixed See You Again is bubblegum dance-pop.

Cyrus has all the bases covered, at least in terms of providing bright-eyed ditties for wide-eyed kiddies craving a safe, squeaky-clean introduction to the pop world. For an album that actually expresses a more textured musical and emotional maturity, we may have to wait until she graduates from high school.

Miley Cyrus Scandal : The Hannah Montana phenomenon should not be underestimated!!!!!