The Future is Electric Youth," Debbie Gibson declares on the title cut of her second album, and the music certainly reflects her optimism and enthusiasm. Electric Youth sounds so bright and giddy that one could easily dismiss Debbie – along with Tiffany and Rick Astley – as just a kinder; gentler teen idol for the waning Eighties.

That would be a mistake, if only because Gibson writes her own material. This eighteen-year-old New Yorker is heir to the great tradition of the Brill Building. Debbie Gibson is a precocious young pro who gets to address her peers in the most direct forum available: the hit single.

What she actually has to say is another matter. "Electric Youth" itself is sort of noble and dumb at the same time, a classic of vague profundity in the style of "I Am Woman." Though Gibson's voice isn't as distinctive as Helen Reddy's once was, Debbie seems to have embraced the gauzy tone of Seventies pop as well as its musical flavor. Make hers a vanilla milkshake, barkeep.

The cute funk underpinning on earlier hits like "Foolish Beat" and "Out of the Blue" has been pulled in favor of bouncy arrangements that recall show tunes. Gibson can take a string of moony sub-Broadway clichés like "Helplessly in Love," however, and invest them with irresistible vigor and innocence. But after a while you can't help noticing how her lyrics dance around the idea of sex.

The extracurricular activities of the birds and bees aren't even a rumor on Electric Youth. When Debbie Gibson begins "Over the Wall" by telling her beloved that "we can play it safe for awhile, if we can," she's actually referring to some inner psychological quest ("Fear of the unknown is unhealthy to the soul"), not heavy petting. In the wake of AIDS, this may seem appropriate, but it's still pretty depressing. Well, the best pop music always mirrors its time, and anyone who's interested in a jolt of the here and now during this era of cultural nostalgia should plug into Electric Youth. (RS 549)

MARK COLEMAN