Album Review: Hold on 'Til the Night by Greyson Chance

"It's over/Yeah, we're through/So I'm-a unfriend you," sings Greyson Chance on Hold on 'Til the Night, his reedy voice rising in a fit of pique. Though Chance may be serious about committing the ultimate social-media diss, the 13-year-old is anything but threatening on this potential blockbuster of a debut. The Oklahoma native scored big with a solo piano cover of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" (41 million YouTube views and counting), and here he's always in a lather, singing power ballads about holding on to dreams and seizing the day.

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Last year, the 13-year-old Oklahoman’s aching cover of Lady Gaga’s ”Paparazzi” became a viral smash and landed him a record deal with Ellen DeGeneres. Forgoing the enthusiastic pandering perpetrated by other Disneyfied tweens, Chance reveals a surprisingly mature voice on Hold On ‘Til the Night (”Heart Like Stone” provides a welcome touch of outsider brooding), though the Facebook-spurred melodrama of ”Unfriend You” reminds listeners that he is, after all, just a kid. B Download These:Summery Little London GirlForlorn Heart Like Stone .

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Released two weeks before Greyson Chance’s 14th birthday, this debut album casts a wide net, throwing power ballads, dance-pop, and Fray-ish rock into the same pot. Hold on ‘Til the Night sometimes sounds a little aimless, as though Greyson and his small army of producers (there are 12 of them in total -- more producers than individual songs) decided to throw every genre at the studio wall and see what stuck. Whenever the songs do stick, though, they deliver the fizzy, adolescent kick of a younger Justin Bieber, replacing Bieber’s urban swagger with Greyson’s piano-based arrangements and dramatic, theater kid vocals.

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