Miley Cyrus
was 13 years old when she started performing as
Hannah Montana
, but by the time
Hannah Montana 3
was released, she was nearly 17. That's a pretty big span of time in a teenager's life, but you'd never know it from listening to these songs -- which is a big part of the problem with them. At this point, the
franchise, its star, and especially its music seem a little weary from their massive popularity, but they haven't changed much over three seasons of the TV show that started it all, two movies, and five albums. If anything,
is more formulaic than ever, switching from fizzy pop to searching acoustic ballads like clockwork. It's also the most cobbled-together
album yet, repeating a couple songs from the
Hannah Montana: The Movie
soundtrack (
"Let's Do This"
and
"Let's Get Crazy"
) and including another song,
"Ice Cream Freeze (Let's Chill),"
that sounds extremely similar to the soundtrack's
"Hoedown Throwdown."
Including fellow
star
Mitchel Musso
's
"Let's Make This Last 4Ever"
and a duet version of
"If We Were a Movie"
with
High School Musical
Corbin Bleu
is savvy cross-promotion, but it adds to the album's unfocused feel. That feeling extends to the songs that haven't appeared anywhere else. The
machine has pumped out so much music so quickly that there just isn't much personality left, and whether it's the happy side of
Hannah
(
"It's All Right Here,"
"Supergirl"
) or the reflective one (
"Mixed Up,"
"Don't Wanna Be Torn"
), they sound equally cookie-cutter. The album's nadir is
"Just a Girl,"
where
/
Miley
laments getting caught up "in a world that believes fame is everything"; the only thing worse than a big star singing about how fame has damaged her is a big child star singing about how fame has damaged her. On the surface,
seems to give fans exactly what they want, but while the
franchise has never been a nonprofit endeavor, the calculation behind this music overwhelms the fun that used to be in it. ~ Heather Phares