100% Miley, 50% worthwhile.

• Position: ETC.

Byline: Craig S. Semon

COLUMN: TRACKS

"Breakout"

Miley Cyrus (Hollywood)

* *

Who needs the likes of Bob Dylan or the Beatles when we have Miley Cyrus?

That's what one might think after reading the accompanying bio for her latest "Breakout," which declares how the pop phenom is "fearlessly embracing new directions every chance she gets." Who am I to argue with press material, let alone record sales?

"Breakout" is the third No. 1 debut for the 15-year-old superstar, but the first one that is "100 percent Miley Cyrus." That merely means that she has dropped the "Hannah Montana" moniker with which she has become synonymous..

Born in Nashville the same year her daddy, Billy Ray Cyrus, unleashed "Achy Breaky Heart," Cyrus is best known by her adoring legion of pintsize fans as "Hannah Montana." According to the art-imitates-life mythology of the popular Disney Channel series, Cyrus' character is an ordinary schoolkid by day, and, with the help of a bad blond wig, becomes a multiplatinum pop star by night, all unbeknownst to her closest (obviously dimwitted and very nearsighted) friends.

Cyrus - who made Forbes' list of top 20 earners under 25 last year (with an annual take of $3.5 million) - also had a No. 1 film, "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds," and is wrapping up "Hannah Montana: The Movie." In addition, she has signed a reported seven-figure deal to write her life story. It is too early to say if her memoirs will be a sticker or pop-up book.

Whether she's backpedaling about showing too much back for a Vanity Fair photo shoot or stirring up the debate on who's more plastic, the 12-inch Hannah Montana fashion doll or the real thing, it seems that a generation weaned on "High School Musical" and "American Idol" deserves her. Then again, they could have done worse.

On what could be dubbed "The Go-Go's: The Next Generation," the title track "Breakout" sounds like a throwback to the '80s new wave chart-toppers, possibly because it has Go-Go's drummer Gina Schock as a co-writer and a background vocalist. Whether she's butting heads with her "uncool" parents, counting the seconds to the final school bell, innocently flirting with boys or innocuously hanging out with her girlfriends, Cyrus, to her credit (and to the relief of parents), sounds like a kid who's not in a rush to grow up. Yes, it's silly that Cyrus carries on about how she's "gonna lose control" when her Disney handlers and her dad have her in so many restraints that...