Miley Cyrus, pop's new queen of reinvention, goes for broke on her new album
Miley Cyrus, Something Beautiful
Most pop stars will tell you that any shot at longevity demands reinvention, often multiple times over. At 32, having started her showbiz career as a kid, Miley Cyrus has already cycled through a lifetime's worth of guises.
As the teen star of Hannah Montana in the mid-'00s she made age-appropriate power pop; by 2013 she was twerking at the MTV Awards and burying her Disney persona with the impudent, chaotic Bangerz. Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, a 2015 psychedelic collab with the Flaming Lips, was nothing if not bold.
Her albums of the past decade have modelled a maturing look and sound as Cyrus tried to stake a place in the pop landscape that went beyond mere provocation, most recently with the vampish glam rock of 2020's Plastic Hearts and the yacht rock and hazy electronica found on 2023's Endless Summer Vacation.
That last one contained Flowers, one of her biggest hits and the track that won Cyrus her first Grammy. In a recent interview Cyrus confessed she'd been yearning for that recognition for a long time, a validating achievement that gave her the freedom to do whatever she wanted this time around.
Whatever she wanted isn't quite as out-there as the marketing around Something Beautiful would have you believe, but it's a solid record all the same. Allegedly inspired by Pink Floyd – The Wall, the 1982 surrealist musical drama that riffs on the Pink Floyd album of the same name, Something Beautiful is significantly less psychedelic and more glamorous than that film; a 'visual album' that succeeds more as art project than artistic evolution.
The title track is probably the most ambitious on the album. It starts as a bluesy lounge ballad, busts into a rock-opera chorus about 90 seconds in, then repeats the process for the track's remainder. The entire album plays in a similar fashion, sprinkled with moments of true daring without ever fully committing to the part.
End of the World plays like a hazy, soft-rock homage to ABBA's Mamma Mia – polished and tasteful without being overly arresting. What is memorable is the accompanying music video, in which Cyrus – a vision in a spangly emerald-green minidress, her long hair worn in loose waves like a '70s pin-up – preens and prowls across the stage under soft, gorgeous lighting.
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