Miley Cyrus’ new album reflects her messy maturity
Illustration by Olivia McCabe
Kofi Mframa, Opinions Editor
Few pop stars seem to have a more turbulent idea of “self” than Miley Cyrus. It’s certainly not surprising since her rise to fame came from living “the best of both worlds.” Consequently, her audience viewed her in a way divorced from her, thus launching her in a decade long search for the “Miley” behind it all.
She became a brunette bombshell that couldn’t be tamed, she twerked on Robin Thicke to escape the childish confines of post-Disney stardom, she then apologized and became a country crooner and then a rock star. Every new album came with a promise of maturity and a deeper understanding of who she is. With her latest album, “Endless Summer Vacation” Miley finds herself now, mature yet messy, examining her chaotic past with an introspection that only comes from a life as dually lived as hers.
The album, her eighth, starts with “Flowers,” the international, unexpected hit that sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks. In it she exemplifies a radical self-acceptance. Gone is the girl who cried “I will always want you” in 2013’s “Wrecking Ball”; enter the woman who can “hold my own hand” and “love me better than you can.” This sentiment acts as the album’s thesis.
In interviews, Cyrus described this album as being split in “AM” and “PM” sections. The former being a wide-eyed, more optimistic exploration of self and love while the latter aims for a darker sensuality in genre, timbre and topic.
The top half of the album, the “AM” section, plays in Cyrus’ country-pop pocket and finds Cyrus reflective. Whether she’s reminiscing about the morning after a late-night hook up on “Rose Colored Lenses” or expressing need for companionship whilst claiming independence on “You,” Cyrus is consistently pointing inward.
The introspection continues with “Thousand Miles” featuring Brandie Carlile, a highlight of this section. Here, Cyrus embraces life’s ambiguity: “I’m out of my mind, but still, I’m holding on like a rolling stone/A thousand miles from anywhere.” It’s a dazzling country-pop track with tinges of hip-hop drums and bluesy guitar riffs. It’s hard to believe that a song with so much joy and wonder was originally written as an ode to a friend she lost to suicide.
“Jaded” is a sorry-not-sorry, tongue-in-cheek “apology” to an ex that falls into some lyrical platitudes: “I’m sorry that you’re jaded/I could have taken you places.” Nevertheless, Cyrus’ incredible voice makes these cheap rhymes almost forgivable.
It’s that voice, its raspiness and subtle darkness, that caught all of our attention as she released covers of classic rock songs throughout the years. This led to her previous work “Plastic Hearts,” an album that everyone begged for, but no one seemed to listen to. This album, filled with pop rock hooks and some country tinged ballads — see “Angels Like You,” played right into Cyrus’ lane and employed that iconic voice in the exact way everyone expected of her.
However, with “Endless Summer Vacation,” we see that this type of pigeonholing does a disservice to the malleability of her voice which is best exhibited in the second half of the album, the “PM” section, as she explores an atmosphere of hazy dance-pop.
The transition from day to night is marked with “Handstand.” In it, Cyrus chronicles a sexually charged meet-cute on a neon dinghy with her friend Big Twitchy, a character created by American director and photographer Harmony Korine. The song pulses like a drunken dancer, fatigued by a night spent on the dance floor, keeping themselves going by a fervent curiosity of what’s ahead.
“Violet Chemistry” is the manifestation of this exact phenomenon: “When the floor is wet/And the lights come on, but you don’t wanna leave/And your phone is lost/But the car’s outside, waitin’ out on the street.” The song, produced, in part, by long-time collaborator Mike WiLL Made-It, explores a potentially queer love affair on the dance floor over a sticky, sticky hip-hop beat that makes you want to bust a move.
Cyrus keeps the party going with “River,” a stand-out on this record. Here, she describes a sort of life changing coitus where her “Heart beats so loud that it’s drownin’ me out” over driving, dance-pop synths produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, who both worked previously with Harry Styles.
“Wildcard” shows Cyrus is self-aware of how hard she is to love.
The rest of the album finds Cyrus struggling to keep the momentum. In an attempt at a curtness and aggression that should be in her nature “Muddy Feet” comes off as clunky and awkward even though it’s well produced.
Cyrus has always struggled to make a record that’s a quality listen the whole way through, this is no exception.
“Endless Summer Vacation,” through its exploration of self and sexuality, feels less like an infinite paradise and more like a reflective look in the rearview on the arduous journey home.
