Miley Cyrus: 'Breakout'

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Up until a few weeks ago it was easy to pigeonhole Miley Cyrus. The 15-year-old daughter of 'Achy Breaky Heart' singer Billy Ray, who found fame as the star of Disney Channel TV series-turned-multimedia phenomenon Hannah Montana, seemed like a typical modern-day US teen star: fun for kids and people who spend too much time reading the National Enquirer, but of little interest to anyone else. But then came 'See You Again', an infectious dance-pop tune that was given a bangin' Eurodance remix for its UK single release. Suddenly Cyrus had something that Hilary Duff, her most obvious Disney Channel forebear, never quite managed: a decent song that actually got played on the radio.

If 'See You Again' was a pleasant surprise, Breakout, the first album Cyrus has released without any connection to Hannah Montana, is a bit of a revelation. It's filled with brisk and breezy power-pop songs about waiting for the school bell to ring, boys who act like jerks when they're with their mates and breaking up at the end of the driveway. Almost everything on the album is a notch or two better than you'd expect: the ballads aren't nearly as drippy as they could be, Cyrus's cover of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' is far from disastrous and the song about global warming, 'Wake Up America', is charming rather than teeth-grinding.

Of course, some of the credit must go to the experienced team of writers and producers who worked on Breakout, but it shouldn't be forgotten that Cyrus co-writes eight of the 12 songs here – more than Britney managed on her first three albums. And while her vocals often lack finesse, they're huskier and more womanly than her wholesome - Vanity Fair incidents aside - image would suggest. Cyrus also has plenty of natural charm, which means she can get away with writing that song about global warming even though she admits in her lyrics that she doesn't really understand the issues.

Breakout undoubtedly benefits from the low expectations many listeners will have of it, but the best of its songs – 'See You Again', the fun, frantic '7 Things', the quirky, Girls Aloud-esque 'Fly On The Wall' – aren't just good pop songs from someone like Miley Cyrus; they're good pop songs full-stop. It's by no means a masterpiece, and the pace does slacken a bit towards the finish, but Breakout is a much stronger album than any 15-year-old Disney Channel star should really be making.