Album Review: Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus

Really belated review of the new Hannah Montana soundtrack, but better late than never. Or so they say.

The new Hannah Montana soundtrack features two different disks, one of which is by "Hannah Montana" and the other is by "Miley Cyrus". From a musical standpoint, there's not too much of a difference, but from a lyrical standpoint, the first disk consists primarily of lyrics very similar to the first soundtrack: songs that directly reference the show/character, inspirational stuff, etc. Disk 2 seems to have lyrics that are more typical of a teen pop album of this era: boys, breakups, etc. But what they both have in common is their maddening inconsistency. Disney, for the life of them, just cannot seem to develop a whole album's worth of good songs for Hannah. In this case, going with the two disk format was probably a mistake, as a really solid album could be made from the highlights of the two disks.

The main problem with the Hannah Montana disk is the proliferation of really boring ballads that go nowhere ("Make Some Noise", "True Friend") and boring rock songs that go nowhere ("You and Me Together", "Bigger Than Us") and boring R&B songs that go nowhere ("Old Blue Jeans"). Three of the four Radio Disney focus songs to this point (namely "Nobody's Perfect", "We Got The Party", and "Life's What You Make It") are actually quite good songs, somewhat surprisingly. "Nobody's Perfect" is a song that I really disliked originally, but which repeated RD exposure has brought me around on. I really like it now! And "We Got the Party" is just such a fun little reggae rock song. Additionally, "One in a Million" is a really pretty ballad that I like a lot, and "Rock Star", though not quite as good as it could be, is still a good little song. Still, that's a hit rate of 5/10, which is not particularly impressive.

Meet Miley Cyrus opens with a bang, as the first two songs on the album are the 2 best songs on the entire 2-cd album. The opening track is "See You Again" and my God it's amazing. When was it released, 1986? It's got such an awesome retro sound and melody and great lyrics too! The album segues from that to "East Northumberland High", another really catchy number. "ENH" has really great teen lyrics and a fun melody. Unfortunately, it all noodles into pretty boring teen dance stuff and ballads after that, and it's off to snooze-land. There's a bit of interesting musical choices, like the latin tinge to "Let's Dance", but for the most part the melodies aren't too catchy and the sugar rush overload production is a bit too much and gets annoying. Which isn't too say the whole rest of the album is bad: "Right Here" is a good song, so is "Start All Over", just that it all tends to blend together and that it's tough to listen to in long stretches.

Inspired by Dave Moore Here's a one album condensation that might actually make an enjoyable listening experience:

Hannah Montana 2
1. "We Got The Party"
2. "Nobody's Perfect"
3. "Rock Star"
4. "Life's What You Make It"
5. "One in a Million"

Meet Miley Cyrus
6. "See You Again"
7. "East Northumberland High"
8. "Right Here"
9. "Start All Over"
10. "I Miss You"

As it stands, though the highlights are as high as any album released this year, I cannot imagine listening to this whole thing in one go, and I can't in good conscience rate an album like that highly. C+. (The one disk condensation would be like a B+ or something). But you have to at least listen to "See You Again", which is probably the best song the Diz machinery will ever produce. There's a pretty good chance it will end up my single of the year (I like both it and "Shut Up And Drive" better than "Sweet Temptation (Hollow)", my single of the year for 2006).