When it comes to being a skinny, big-smiling teen-ager who can whip pop music fans into a frenzy with a mere toss of his excellent curls, let's face it: Corbin Bleu has competition. If Bleu is not the only TV-launched singer to revitalize both leave-in conditioner sales and puppy love in 2007, though, he is the only one with a shot at being taken seriously by critics. Another Side, his first album post-High School Musical and Jump In!, the Disney Channel movies that made a household name out of him (at least in households inhabited by 8- to 15-year-olds), is pretty much what you'd expect--a high-energy hybrid of pop, R&B, and hip-hop. Consider "Push It to the Limit," the song that propelled the Jump In! soundtrack and closes this disc, an on-ramp to the bubbly Bleu sound. Don't discount what separates him from the pack of post-Disney Channel singers wishing upon stars for pop-chart domination, though. His vocals, a pleasing mash of Michael Jackson and Jesse McCartney, make him a contender for a long-term career in music. --Tammy La Gorce
