3 days ago
The 5 Biggest Takeaways From Miley Cyrus's New Album, 'Something Beautiful'
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Miley Cyrus is back and better than ever.
After a series of career highs, from her first Grammy wins to a chart-smashing hit, Cyrus took some time away from the spotlight to work on her ninth studio album, Something Beautiful—which is out today. Now that it's finally here, it proves to be her most daring, most cohesive collection of work yet.
'I would like to be a human psychedelic for people,' Cyrus told Harper's Bazaar last year for our December/January cover story. At the time, she unveiled the name of her new album and revealed the forces that inspired it, from Pink Floyd's The Wall to Thierry Mugler's groundbreaking 1995 couture show.
On how she approached the music, Cyrus said, 'I don't want anyone trying to be like me or imitate me or even be inspired by me. I want to impact frequencies in your body that make you vibrate at a different level.'
She added: 'The visual component of this is driving the sound. It was important for me that every song has these healing sound properties. The songs, whether they're about destruction or heartbreak or death, they're presented in a way that is beautiful, because the nastiest times of our life do have a point of beauty. They are the shadow, they are the charcoal, they are the shading. You can't have a painting without highlights and contrast.'
As for those visuals, Cyrus actually has a corresponding musical film that will premiere on June 6 at the Tribeca Film Festival, with a limited theatrical release following on June 12. She has claimed that the movie is her 'way of touring' and it promises to be an immersive experience of fashion, music, cinema, and more.
But let's get back to the music for a moment. Ahead, we break down the five biggest takeaways from Miley Cyrus's new album, Something Beautiful.
From her Hannah Montana days to her early ballads like 'When I Look At You,' Cyrus has always proven that she's got pipes, and she's spent the last few years really honing her vocal craft. Sometimes she leans more into twang, like in her Backyard Sessions cover of 'Jolene,' but other times she lets the raspiness of her voice add a certain luster to her songs, as demonstrated on more recent tracks like 'Angels Like You' and 'River.' On Something Beautiful, the Grammy winner's vocals take on a whole new spirit of their own.
'Easy Lover' stirs its listeners when she drags out the first word ('But you're not an eeeeeeasy lover'), channeling rock legends like Joan Jett or Janis Joplin. In 'Golden Burning Sun,' it sounds like Cyrus is actually trying to make her vocals reach the stars as she belts 'Surrenderrrr!' She gives every single note her all, and it makes for an electric listening experience.
Despite being her most cohesive work to date, Something Beautiful isn't easy to nail down, genre-wise. Cyrus plays with jazz, rock, psychedelia, house, and disco. But if there's one thing that seems consistent across the work, it's that she wants us to move.
'Walk of Fame' is an electropop anthem that explores Cyrus's relationship to celebrity with strong synths leading the charge. In 'Every Girl You've Ever Loved,' Naomi Campbell literally commands her listeners to 'pose,' like they're on the runway at a ball. Cyrus previously told Harper's Bazaar that she wanted to create music that was 'hypnotic.' Something Beautiful was 'an attempt to medicate somewhat of a sick culture through music,' she added. Clearly, that medicine is busting some moves.
When making Something Beautiful, Cyrus collaborated with her boyfriend, Maxx Morando, on a number of the tracks, and it's evident that the album is a labor of love. In 'Pretend You're God,' Cyrus sings to a lover, telling them that she's going to deify them, with that adoration even turning into a form of addiction. 'In my dreams, I see your face / It hits me like a thousand trains / I don't wanna wake up if you're gone.' With 'Reborn,' Cyrus declares that her love is so strong it's like being in heaven, and she's experiencing something spiritual with her partner. 'If heaven exists, I've been there before / Kill my ego, let's be reborn.'
Even when she's not seemingly singing about her current paramour, Cyrus explores lost loves, most notably on the ballad 'More to Lose' (which she called her 'I Will Always Love You' in an interview with Zane Lowe). The track might be about her relationship with Liam Hemsworth, who she was married to from 2018 until their divorce in 2020. Love, whether it's a memory or something burning right in front of her, is everywhere across this music.
Of course, it's hard to talk about Something Beautiful without talking about the accompanying visuals. Before she drops her full musical film in June, Cyrus has given us a taste of what to expect with the music videos, which have been fashion-heavy, to say the least. From archival Bob Mackie to vintage Thierry Mugler—which legendary fashion photographer Glen Luchford shot for the album's cover—it's clear that fashion was a driving force behind this project. Even her street style appearances have been marked by clothing straight off the Fall 2025 runways, from Alaïa to Saint Laurent and more.
Producer Shawn Everett noted to Bazaar that fashion shows played a major role during the recording process. 'She'll want it to feel like this specific runway show or something,' Everett says. 'I love when she talks like that. For me, it opens up a whole world.' Cyrus herself added, 'My idea was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.' Time will tell whether Something Beautiful has the same culture-defining legacy, but when it comes to the glamor: mission accomplished.
Something Beautiful largely focuses on the nature of existence. Cyrus frequently poses questions about religion and free will, and she often references the state of the world. Her song titles seem to portend some sort of an apocalypse: 'End of the World,' 'Golden Burning Sun,' 'Reborn.' But actually, she seems more interested in the ways in which we persist and persevere. 'Tell me something beautiful, yeah, about this world,' she sings in the title track. 'Tell me something I can hold on to, you're who I belong to.' Often, the lyrics return to that idea of love, and Cyrus seems to believe that love will be the one thing that saves us.
On the final lines of the album, in the song 'Give Me Love,' Cyrus leaves us with an image of her dream life crumbling to the ground. Somehow, though, it turns into a message of hope. 'So I'll say my goodbyes to the earthly delights / While my perfect Eden goes down in flames / I'm eaten alive by the mouth of a monster / While fearlessly callin' out your name.' With her existential agency, Cyrus will use every chance she gets to fight for love.
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