{alltv} Miley Cyrus' 'Can't Be Tamed' is kind of lame

 

The teen-pop sensation's latest album is a collection of generic, anonymous tunes.

Miley Cyrus, Can't Be Tamed
* ½ DISNEY WORLD IS FAR BEHIND

Anyone doubting that Miley Cyrus has made the full leap from tween queen to pop tart need only refer to the video for the title track from her new album, Can't Be Tamed.

The apple-cheeked 17-year-old appears as a feral winged creature, writhing suggestively amid similarly hot-and-bothered dancers. The song, a blandly thumping declaration of independence, is in sync with the other heavily produced dance-pop, rock candy and power ballads on Tamed, each one more generic and anonymous than the last. Like Britney Spears before her, Cyrus seems determined to follow in the footsteps of older female stars who have asserted their autonomy, and professed love, over catchy hooks and sexy beats. But as with Spears, you sense less a tender but distinctive voice than a very young artist encouraged by her vast creative and marketing teams to emote and titillate. When Cyrus sings on Robot "Stop telling me I'm part of the big machine," you wonder whether she's addressing a controlling beau or a professional colleague. Either way, you root for her — and worry, too.

>Consider (if you must): Take Me Along, Two More Lonely People

OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES

The Roots, How I Got Over
* * * * HIP-HOP ON A HIGHER PLANE

The Roots' razor-sharp ninth studio outing is their first since becoming the full-time house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The band's daring genre-bending eclecticism and insightful socio-politicism make Over worth revisting time and again.

>Download: Dear God 2.0, How I Got Over, The Fire

Robert Randolph & the Family Band, We Walk This Road
* * * ½ HEAVENLY HISTORY LESSON

Stepping beyond his hip-hop/contemporary gospel/jam band comfort zone, the Sacred Steel guitarist drank deeply from producer T Bone Burnett's cache of roots music. The result is a thrilling synthesis of rock, blues, funk and old black gospel.

>Download:Traveling Shoes, Shot of Love, Salvation

Cyndi Lauper, Memphis Blues
* * * GIRLS JUST WANNA GET THE BLUES

Bessie Smith she's not, but Lauper freshens up even a much-worn blues like Robert Johnson's Crossroads. Even with the help of talent like B.B. King, Ann Peebles, Charlie Musselwhite and Allen Toussaint, she makes her pet project all her own.

>Download: Early in the Mornin', Don't Cry No More

The Chemical Brothers, Further
* * * BLOCK ROCKIN' RETREAT

Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons ditch celebrity singers and chart gambits to revisit the flashy Big Beat sound the British electronica duo pioneered in the '90s. Further's eight heavily synthesized tracks feel more like vibe exercises than chiseled hits.

>Download:Snow, Swoon, K+D+B, Horse Power