Billboard CD reviews: Miley Cyrus, Buddy Guy

ARTIST: MILEY CYRUS

ALBUM: BREAKOUT (HOLLYWOOD RECORDS)

Naming a new album "Breakout" when you've already sold 7 million career units seems like a delayed reaction. But for Miley Cyrus, the game plan was apparently "first tweens, then the world." While it's still age-appropriate for minors, "Breakout" is for the big kids too. The natural-born popster -- who co-wrote all but two songs -- invokes everyone from Wilson Phillips ("Bottom of the Ocean") to the B-52s ("Fly on the Wall"), with a sparkplug energy and Stevie-Nicks-by-way-of-Tennessee twang that's nothing if not adorable. Even a rocked-out cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," which could have been nullified by its obviousness, makes you OK with the fact that a generation will grow up thinking it's a Cyrus original. Relying entirely on the full-blooded, all-American guitar, there's not a single dancefloor beat on "Breakout": For once, the kids are pogo-ing, not grinding.

ARTIST: VARIOUS ARTISTS

ALBUM: MAMMA MIA! (DECCA)

"Mamma Mia!," the motion picture featuring 17 ABBA songs (and a hidden bonus), is destined to join the lexicon of modern signature musicals, a la "Hairspray" and "Dreamgirls," showcasing ABBA's 30-year ever-resuscitating legacy. Produced by group co-founder Benny Andersson with ABBA's original musicians, what makes this production work is the contrast between super-slick arrangements against decidedly imperfect vocals from actors like Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Amanda Seyfried. The cast can carry a tune, and Streep in particular shows aptitude in her upper range. "The Winner Takes It All," even with occasional off notes, is truly affecting.

ARTIST: BUDDY GUY

ALBUM: SKIN DEEP (SILVERTONE/ZOMBA)

As he jams with Eric Clapton around the middle of his latest CD, Buddy Guy says, "The blues are all around me, I just find something I can use." That's seldom been a problem throughout Guy's career, which seems to be only getting more potent as he ages. At 72, Guy plays his guitar with the sting of someone a third his age and sings with the authoritative bark of a grizzled vet you know better than to mess with. But that doesn't stop anyone from playing along, and Guy certainly seems happy to school the "young'uns" -- whether he's dueling with Clapton on "Every Time I Sing the Blues" or dancing around Robert Randolph's pedal steel on the galloping "That's My Home." On "Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes," Guy ponders the future of the blues, reaching no conclusions but assuring us on these 12 tracks that its present is in pretty good hands.

ARTIST: CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG

ALBUM: DEJA VU LIVE (REPRISE)

When it was released in 2006, it was easy to dismiss Neil Young's hastily assembled "Living With War" for not being all that tuneful, despite its admirably rebellious intentions. But when Young reunited with Crosby, Stills & Nash to play the balance of the disc live, "War" came alive. And thanks to Young's new documentary of that tour and this soundtrack, songs like "Let's Impeach the President" and "After the Garden" have justly gained new traction. Against epic renderings of old favorites like "Wooden Ships," "For What It's Worth" and an especially spirited rendition of Graham Nash's great "Military Madness," they form the emotional core of this rousing and accurate representation of the supergroup as it is today -- sonically nudged in the direction of Young's ragged work with Crazy Horse, but still compelling and potent when not even plugged in.

ARTIST: PAUL WELLER

ALBUM: 22 DREAMS (YEP ROC)

Paul Weller's all over the place with his ninth solo album -- he visits all his touchstones, but there's less nostalgia and more experimentation infused into the tracks than usual. And that's a good thing. About half of the material riffs on Weller's trademark British soul rock; think "Nuggets" for the Britpop set. Swirly pop gem "All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)" fits right there, as does the co-write (with Oasis' Noel Gallagher) "Echoes Round the Sun," which rides a Bo Diddley beat across a river of distorted guitars, shimmering keyboards and mantra-like vocals. But then there are moments like "Song for Alice," an entrancing, near-psychedelic instrumental. On a grander scale, the closing quartet of intertwining songs is about as far out as Weller gets, veering from a spoken word about deities to a fractured mellotron collage to the mutating soundscape of closer "Night Lights."

ARTIST: SONIC YOUTH

ALBUM: HITS ARE FOR SQUARES (STARBUCKS)

It's easy to be cynical about a Sonic Youth compilation available only at Starbucks, especially one with songs picked by other rock stars and highbrow Hollywood types. After all, weren't these guys once the kings of the anti-establishment indie rock world? But hey: If this album introduces a few hundred coffee drinkers to Sonic Youth, maybe it's not such a bad thing. Plus, the band has never really been the subject of a compilation like this before, and it's nice to have favorites like "Teenage Riot," "Kool Thing" and "100%" all in one place. What really shine are underappreciated recent tracks like the gently unfolding "Rain on Tin" and the restrained freakout "Stones," which embody Sonic Youth's continuing evolution. As an overview, this is as satisfying as a large latte.

Reuters/Billboard