Lila (Asylum, 1997)

After the LeeAnn Rimes craze of the past year, listening to country's newest high-school sweetheart is refreshing. Lila McCann is a 15-year-old who looks and sounds like she couldn't possibly be aday over 20, and for the most part, she performs songs that are believable coming from a high schooler.

McCann's bright, sprightly voice is perfectly suited for bouncy ditties like "I Wanna Fall in Love" and "Just One Little Kiss," but she does equally well singing about waiting for the right man to come along on "Already Somebody's Lover." Her remake of Sheena Easton's pop hit "Almost Over You" is beautiful and really lets her show off her voice.

On the downside, pop producer Mark Spiro, who produced this album and wrote six of the songs, sometimes lacks creativity with his melodies, and one song, "Yippy Ky Yay," is a silly throwaway. Although the first single, "Down Came a Blackbird," is one of the best debuts to hit country radio since, well, Rimes's "Blue," the rest of this album doesn't quite measure up.