High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens was most recently in the news for a fairly tame nude-pictures scandal, but her second album gives no indication that she’s looking to shed her otherwise squeaky clean image and play with the grown-ups. Despite state-of-the-charts beats from hot producers like Dr. Luke and J.R. Rotem and a guest appearance from Lil Mama, Identified is as tame as the Disney Channel programming that made Hudgens a star.

Lead single “Sneakernight” is about Hudgens cutting loose and putting on her … sneakers. The hooking up she sings about on “Hook It Up” involves … dancing. The guy she calls her “First Bad Habit” does nasty things with her … heart.

In a way it’s refreshing how wholesome the 19-year-old Hudgens is; she’s like Mariah Carey before the skanktastic makeover, only not nearly as dazzling a singer. Given the show tune-style songs she’s belted out in the High School Musicals, it’s disappointing to hear Hudgens as Auto-Tuned as T-Pain on songs like “Amazed” and “Party on the Moon.” She sounds enthusiastic on the dance numbers, but the ballads are mostly faceless and show little personality; the plug-and-play feel makes Identified sound like My First Pop Album.

It’s hard to imagine Hudgens having a long career as a pop singer; Identified is mostly adequate, but she’s probably better suited to old-fashioned interpretation than superstardom.

The bottom line: **1/2