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Selena Gomez is the keeper from the Disney/Nickelodeon pop boom of the late ’00s. More relaxed than Justin Bieber, more human-sounding than Miranda Cosgrove and far more flexible than Demi Lovato, Gomez plies pre-teens with feel-good PG pop that’s hedonistic in a slumber-party pillow fight kind of way. Just like Lovato, she likes to pretend that she’s fronting a band, but the Scene is mostly a collection of machine beats and whooshing early-Gaga synthesizers. Every moment of “When the Sun Goes Down” is formulaic, of course, but she breathes life into the blueprint with a strong series of vocal performances that play back like a tamer, saner version of Christina Aguilera (with a touch of Hayley Williams grit thrown in to provide traction). A few of these pop petit fours are downright irresistible, particularly the bouncy “Hit the Lights,” the brassy “Bang Bang Bang” and the Greg Kurstin-penned “Whiplash,” on which Gomez raps her pre-chorus at least as well as Ke$ha could. She also wins points for multiculturalism: she re-cut lead single “Who Says” in Spanish and appended it to the album. So the next time you’re looking for an anodyne disc for your kid, consider this one — and don’t be surprised if you find yourself singing along.read more