Identified (Vanessa Hudgens)

EN “Identified” is the second album by American artist Vanessa Hudgens. Released on July 1, 2008, the project would serve to exhibit the evolution of the artist since the first album, “V”, released in 2006, and at the same time to be publicized during the presence of the singer in the project "High School Musical".

For the release of the album it was selected the track “Sneakernight” as the first, and only, single from the album. The song ends up being catchy, getting some similarities from Christina Aguilera's “Back to Basics", but I think it did not serve well to its effect, being one of the weakest songs on the album, without any type of personality and with a fairly basic lyric. There was immense potential in other tracks, such as the eponymous track or even the collaboration with Lil Mama, “Amazed” or even with “First Bad Habit”, hence it is not possible to understand how they were able to choose that track as a single. Probably comes from the lack of promotion of the album and this was the last album of the singer.

Certainly, there is no lack of talent in composition and production. A palette of established hitmakers have been invited to collaborate on the project, including Cathy Dennis, Dr. Luke and Max Martin, leading the singer in Britney's electro/pop style (“First Bad Habit”, “Identified”) through personal empowerment ballads (“Gone With The Wind”), and songs with an almost R&B style (“Paper Cut”, “Don't Leave”). The biggest surprises turn out to be the tracks “Hook It Up”, by the duo Rock Mafia, which sounds like the kind of music Lady Gaga could have recorded when she was a teenager and, finally, “Set It Off” which, in addition to Dr. Luke and Max Martin features Klas Åhlund, who turns out to be a breath of fresh air as the album closes, featuring extra (uncredited) vocals by Ashley Tisdale in certain parts of the song.

I perfectly remember listening to the album for the first time on the night of São João, a festivity in Portugal, in 2008, while waiting with my parents for the fireworks, so I hold it with immense esteem in my heart. And, for me, the album is a good successor to the previous project but suffered greatly by the bad choice of first single, there were several tracks waiting to be released, which ended up not happening. I think the problem could also be associated with the fact that they constantly associate it with the project "High School Musical” which wasn't helping her transition from a young singer to an adult singer. But if we listen to the album these days, already close to its 13th anniversary, we see that the formula still works and that many of the tracks could be perfectly released today by singers such as Selena Gomez, Dua Lipa or even Ariana Grande.

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