A few years back, country star Miley Cyrus reinvented herself as a chieftain of teen rebellion with the release of her fourth album, ‘Bangerz’. Miley 2.0 was a figurehead of neon vulgarity, a kind of Boudicca of sleaze-punk-pop.
One psychedelic concept album about her dead pets later, we have her new record, ‘Younger Now’. It appears Cyrus is being re-positioned again, this time rebooted as Miley 1.5: halfway between the original two personas.
The result is an album that survives thanks to the sincerity of Cyrus's rootsy vocal performance. Country is a genre built on sentimentality; on working class considerations and singers who can convey a uniquely American spirituality.
While Cyrus is one such singer, ‘Younger Now’ is frequently hampered through a combination of thin production and cowardly songwriting.
Certain tracks do connect. I Would Die For You is an itchy pop ballad that showcases Cyrus’s versatile sonic personality while re-appropriating country motifs with delicate shuffling snares and elegant vocal blend.
Elsewhere, Inspired is a beautiful song with a marvellous steel guitar and fiddle arrangement that edges the music towards peak Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton - who also features on a duet, Rainbowland. We also have the monster hit Malibu, a song that gently picks up texture amid a tender, folksy Avicii barn-dance backbeat.
The lyrics are from the country playbook, highlighting small town romance and wistful, spacious poetic meanderings: “I never came to the beach or stood by the ocean / I never sat by the shore under the sun with my feet in the sand / But you brought me here and I'm happy that you did / 'Cause now I'm as free as birds catching the wind.”
This is exactly the kind of song Cyrus needed to release after the sound and fury of the last four years. The problem is that it, like so much of ‘Younger Now’, is a little calculating in its safe, retreating blandness.
Cyrus is 24, and has already had enough commercial success to pay for several music careers, so the ball is very much in her court when it comes to creative direction. ‘Younger Now’ is pretty safe, and in the context of a pop career that might last 50 years, it will likely end up looking like a shrewd professional choice. But as an album, it lacks soul. The whole thing feels a bit cynical.
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