By Annabel Ross
Miley Cyrus’ Something Beautiful: A “visual album” that succeeds more as art project than artistic evolution.Credit:
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.
Something Beautiful is Cyrus’ first release since the Grammy success of Flowers last year.Credit: Glen Luchford
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.
The other four music videos that have been released so far are equally stunning, all sharing a dreamy, luxe aesthetic and a luminescent Cyrus draped in haute couture. The songs on Something Beautiful are a fine fit for such sumptuous, languid imagery but make a more subtle impression on their own.
There’s also something of a curious divide between musical styles, with Cyrus channelling chanteuses of a bygone era on half the songs and leaning into slick dance-pop on the other. The latter tracks stand out more, especially Walk of Fame, which cruises in on a contemporary hi-NRG verse, throws in a breakdown of debatable merit, and is elevated by some diva wailing from Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, favourably recalling Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy. Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved, featuring a Naomi Campbell cameo that nods to both Madonna’s Vogue and RuPaul, is another extended Italo-disco bop and surefire pride anthem.
Over the past few years especially, one gets the sense that Cyrus aspires for the same kind of iconic status bestowed to stars like her godmother Dolly Parton, Tina Turner (whose style and dance moves Miley has been aping of late) and Cher. Visually, her new album certainly screams diva, but it does little in the service of Miley’s own myth-building.
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