Miley Cyrus is a 32 year old singer/songwriter, actress & director from Franklin, Tennessee breaking out as the older sister of Noah Cyrus & the 2nd eldest daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. Achieving greater success as the titular character on the The Walt Disney Company-owned Disney Channel teen sitcom Hannah Montana, her first 3 LPs Meet Miley Cyrus alongside Breakout & Can’t Be Tamed under Hollywood Records were equally met with mixed or negative reception. Same goes with The Time of Our Lives. Her debut for RCA Records during my junior year of high school Bangerz was when her music started to improve since I prefer songs like “#GetItRight” produced by The Neptunes over it’s biggest hit “Wrecking Ball”. Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz became a polarizing take on neo-psychedelia & psychic pop even with The Flaming Lips’ involvement, Younger Now went for a mid country pop direction aside from a DJ Premier remix of the title track, She’s Coming missed the landing with R&B & electropop and Plastic Hearts was a decent way to fulfill her RCA contract following her divorce from Liam Hemsworth of the mid A24 Films thriller Cut Bank. Moving over to Columbia Records, her debut for them Endless Summer Vacation once again divided public opinion & the high praise her 9th full-length album has been getting made me want to hear it to believe it.
“Prelude” has gotta be one of the boldest lead singles to a body of work that I’ve heard in a long time since it’s spoken word poetry over an epic post-minimalistic & progressive electronic instrumental until the title track goes full gear drawing from art rock, psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock, smooth soul, jazz-rock & experimental rock desiring something beautiful lasting eternity.
Pop rock, Europop, new wave, psychedelic pop, soft rock & big music all collide on “End of the World” suggesting that we should be making the best of our final moments if the apocalypse were to happen leading into “More to Lose” maintains a steady cross between soft rock, adult contemporary, piano rock & art pop singing about not wanting to be interrupted ore overthinking of chasing perfection.
“Easy Lover” after the first of 2 interludes was actually conceived during the Plastic Hearts sessions fusing country, rock & pop addressing the emotional addiction to a complicated relationship but after the other interlude, “Golden Burning Sun” turns up the soft rock influences employing themes of devotion. “Walk of Fame” featuring Brittany Howard is a synthpop duet singing about what it’s like for he to be at her level of international superstardom just before “Pretend You’re God” yearns to have that person in her life who’ll make her their everything.
The song “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved” featuring Naomi Campbell blends funk & pop together for another duet asking if they’re pretty enough for more than fun in the dark while “Reborn” experiments with meshing trance music & pop together for a spiritual enlightenment ode inspired after she & Greg Aldae sat at church together one day. “Give Me Love” as a closer heavily builds itself around synthesizers instrumentally singing that heaven & terror both await behind the curtain while “Secrets” starts the deluxe run by forgiving her father. The final bonus track “Lockdown” finishes with a 13 & a half minute 2-parter singing about a relationship on the lowkey.
Never thought I’d see the day where I’d actually being saying any of what you’re gonna read in this paragraph, but here we are! Regardless of Bangerz always holding a place in my heart as time goes on, I can’t say that I’ve would’ve NEVER thought I’d hear Miley surpass it in terms of cohesiveness until Something Beautiful. Inspired by Pink Floyd’s iconic 11th album The Wall, it’s heavy concept centered around healing from trauma on top of finding beauty in life’s darkest moments & reconciliation of lost time heavily dabbling with pop rock, art rock, electro-disco, dance-pop, soft rock, neo-psychedelia, spoken word, poetry, epic music, post-minimalism, progressive electronic, psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock, smooth soul, jazz-rock, experimental rock, adult contemporary, piano rock, art pop, Europop, new wave, psychedelic pop, big music, synthpop & a small dose of country blows everything she’s done out the water.
Score: 4.5/5
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