POP/R&B

"Raven-Symone"

Dan Steinberg/STR (ENLARGE)
Raven-Symone keeps it youthful.
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Raven-Symone. Hollywood Records. 13 tracks.

Grade: B-

Though she's a Disney Channel star (and a "Cosby Show" star before that), Raven-Symone will probably never release a sexy record to prove she's not a Mouseketeer — the way Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears did to prove they were all grown up. Instead this 22-year-old from Atlanta seems to age in reverse. On her latest, upbeat pop album her voice is higher and more childlike than ever. "I'm a girl," she insists, "100 percent girl."

Having built her empire on the tween sitcom "That's So Raven," Raven-Symone is wise to work the angle that she's no different from any of her middle school fans. One endearing song even finds her staring long-legged glamazons down and realizing "they put their shorts on just like me." But when the Clutch, Sean Garrett and other urban hitmakers try to bring the Dirty South out of her, building beats around distorted synths and repetitive club hooks, she comes across as stiffly G-rated. On "Stupid," she tells her crush he's got what most "dames" want.

When she manages to avoid the granny slang, she sounds confident on the R&B tracks. "In My Skin" (she feels comfortable in it) recalls early Janet Jackson. And midtempo ballads like "Hollywood Life" and "In the Pictures," about the loneliness of being a child star, feel heartfelt. They underscore that she still has a real-girl appeal — and the right producers to bring it out of her.

— Melissa Maerz, New York Times