Maybe we should have seen this coming long ago. At the mere age of 17, she told the world she “can’t be tamed.” Early in the summer she told us that she “can’t stop.”
Then on Saturday Night Live she told us that Hannah Montana has been murdered.
But for all the twerking and foam fingering, we really expected a bit more out of Miley Cyrus’s first album since she cut her hair.
Even collaboration with all-time favorites like Nelly, Britney Spears and Ludacris couldn’t save Cyrus’ recently released album, “Bangerz.”
Let’s start off with her recent music videos. When “We Can’t Stop” came out this past summer, I saluted Miley. She was doing something different and innovative. Isn’t that what art is all about? But then she appeared naked on a demolition ball and mimicked sexual relations with inanimate objects.
Musicians can and should express their inner creativity, but they should also know their fan base. Cyrus began her career as a role model for millions of young girls, who are easily influenced by the media.
Just because her definition of growing up involves drug use, head shaving and twerking, doesn’t mean the rest of her impressionable, youthful fan base should make the same decisions.
Her latest tracks range from repulsive to just plain boring. The album has pop undertones reminiscent of the “old” Miley, but her overuse of auto-tune, rapping and curse words cancel it all out.
“Bangerz” opens with her strongest track, “Wrecking Ball,” a song that is actually powerful and beautiful — if you don’t watch the music video.
It feels like Miley is trying on a few different costumes. In “#GETITRIGHT,” a poetic coming-of-age ballad, Cyrus asserts that she has in fact gone through puberty and is a grown woman. She also talks about her tongue a bit:
“You’re sexy sexy
I got things I want to do to you
Make me make me
Make my tongue just go do-do-do”
She gets soulfully intellectual in the ballad, “FU,” in which we can actually hear hints of her country voice:
“I got two, ooh letters for you. One of them is F and the other one is U”
Congrats, Miley. You understand acronyms. Unfortunately, you don’t understand much about music.
The problem is that Miley is capable of so much more. While Cyrus pushes her artistic boundaries in this album, she should probably return to her old ways. Maybe she could actually regain her fan base in the process.
Read a rebuttal to this review here.