Identified Review

Never mind the full-frontal JPEGs that leaked online last year—Vanessa Hudgens is still very much a Disney girl. On her second solo disc, she lavishes attention on boys, sings about dancing and never acknowledges, explicitly or even implicitly, the horizontal tango. This is teen pop in which any trace of innuendo has been eradicated: There is no genie in the bottle, no hormones straining against the schoolgirl outfit; the most subversive moment is “Sneakernight,” in which Hudgens throws a late-night dance party, bedtimes be damned.
Read More...

Vanessa Hudgens make albums with a more mature sound than most Radio Disney fare. Hudgens' debut album, V, was her first step toward a less overtly Disney-affiliated career: released by the studio's Hollywood label, it used Christina Aguilera's soulful pop as a template; even if its songs were a bit faceless, they had surprisingly sophisticated production values. Almost two years passed between V and its follow-up, Identified.
Read More...