V
Vanessa Hudgens is not "indescribable," as the MC who opensVproclaims in a hopped-up, hyped-out voice. On the contrary, the smoky-eyedHigh School Musicalstar commands a multitude of adjectives--she's adorable, talented, ambitious, and as this debut makes clearer than a set of invisible braces, young. With one foot in the grown-up, club-going world and the other in a powder-pink bedroom with a Barbie under the bed, Hudgens kicks out a crop of hooky and highly accessible tracks here. First single "Come Back to Me" dabbles in a sophisticated breed of disco, "Let's Dance" lets rip a whispery torrent of R-rated come-ons, and "Let Go," bolstered by its girls-night-out lyric, loses its inhibitions beneath an R&B-lite; beat. Elsewhere, on tracks no less compelling, Hudgens explores her inner Hilary Duff: "Drive" pops the hood on her pop-anthem side ("As long as I'm alive, I'm gonna drive"), and "Afraid" wrestles with a sense of vulnerability all wrapped up in teen hormones ("Why am I so afraid/I can't see what's come over me"). Split personality or no, Hudgens makes a strong case through her Anna Nalick-reminiscent vocals alone that she's someone worth watching--a lot of emotion pours through her still-developing pipes and, as anybody who sawHigh School Musicalknows, the girl can twirl.-Tammy La Gorce