Psychedelic and apocalyptic, but without acids: Miley’s return
In the song that opens the album, entitled emphatically “Prelude“,” Prelude “, tells the experience of a shiny. Speaks of impermanence and of precariousness And he sings: “The beauty that is located alone is a prayer that wants Ardenemuto to be shared». Then the title track starts, one of the individuals who anticipated the release of the disc, a R&B ballad with soul and jazz shades that editions in a refrain that looks to the experimental rock and psychedelic pop, characterized by the distortion of his voice: “I am drowning in devotion, profound as the ocean, so do not let me go”. The Miley Cyrus of “Something Beautiful”, the new album to be released this Friday, May 30 two years after the previous “Endless Summer Vacation”, is psychedelic and apocalyptic. But without acids (he has sworn to be sober for five years). At times too unsettling. After satisfying the general public with a simpler and more traditional guise, with the “Flowers” album, the former Disney star who arrived in pop that counts in 2013 on her demolition ball returns to displace. Raising the bar.
The most ambitious disc of his career
“Something Beautiful” It is the ninth album of Cyrus’s career and is certainly the bravest, ambitious and also commercially risky that the pop star of “Wrecking Ball” has done to date. The singer -songwriter worked on the thirteen songs that make him in the last two years, disappearing at a certain point from the scenes, involving producers and authors considered outsider compared to those whose names appear practically all the credits of the US pop or British discs of these years: from BJ Burton (Bon iver, charli xcx) a Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The Killers), passing through Maxx Morando (his boyfriend, former member of the American punk rock band The Regrettes), Alec O’Hanley and Molly Rankin (of the Alvvays, the Canadian Pops of the scene of the scene) and Jonathan Rado (member of the heroes of the Californian rock indie of the Foxygen). The goal? Get the luxury of getting out of his comfort zone. And spread the cards on the table, thanks to the success with the previous disc. It was she herself in a long interview granted to Zane Lowe to Apple Music’s microphones that explained that she was able to allow such an operation by virtue of the two Grammy Awards won in 2024 with “Flowers” as “Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Solo Performance”: “Once I received the Grammy I thought:” Here, when you are looking for me on Google now. ‘Miley Cyrus, winning artist of a Grammy’ “. Now I can go to do my strange stuff that I like to do. And somehow I ended up making an experimental albumbut I never wanted to abandon pop music because I believe that The Beatles, Elvis, David Bowie, Prince, Madonna are all pop artists ».
But what do the Pink Floyd have to do with it?
Last November he had anticipated that “Something Beautiful” would be inspired by Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, making the clothes of rock purists tear. Of “The Wall”, of course, there is nothing, as there is nothing of any other Pink Floyd album. It is only in the format that Cyrus was inspired, or at least tried, to the head of the legendary British rock band. “It is a concept album that is an attempt to treat a sick culture with music. For people I would like to be a psychedelic human. I don’t want someone to try to be like me or imitate me or even just to be inspired by me. I want to influence frequencies in your body to make you vibrate at a different level. For me it was important that every song had these healing sound properties. The songs, which speak of destruction, crack or death, are presented in a good way, because the ugliest moments of our life have a point of beauty. They are the shadow, they are charcoal, they are shades. You cannot have a painting without lights and contrasts, “he explained. And again: «My idea was to make “The wall”, but with a better and more glamorous wardrobe and full of pop culture». On the cover he was photographed by the photographer Glen Luchford, active in the Glamor sector, wearing a Diu Thierry Mugler’s archive dress of 1997 described as “a surprising nod” to the “bold” aesthetic of the album. The image sees Cyrus wrapped in darkness while it is surrounded by some lights, emphasizing the theme of the album: “Finding beauty in the dark moments”.
The film, announced as “a pop work”
From “End of the World” to “Give Me Love”, passing through “More To Lose”, “Easy Lover”, “Gold Burning Sun”, “Pretend you’re God” and “Reborn”, the themes of the 13 songs revolve around beauty, death, impermanence, pain and destruction: “The ugliest moments of our life have a beauty point. They are the shadow, they are charcoal, they are shades. You cannot have a painting without lights and contrasts“, explains. Together with the disc he also worked on a moviedesigned as the visual translation of the songs. It is simply entitled “Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful“And will be previewed on June 6 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, one of the most awaited appointments by cinema enthusiasts, and then arrives In Italian theaters only for a day, on June 27, as a special event at the cinema. The project is presented as “a pop work”. The mix was signed by Alan Meyerson, already behind the sound of “Dune – Part 1” and “The Dark Knight”: “” Something Beautiful is the project of my dreams that comes to life: fashion, cinema and original music that coexist in harmony – claims Cyrus – the people who have worked with me are all genes in their own way: from the masters of sound, Shawn Evrett and Alan Meyerson, up to one of the most original directors on the film scene, Panos Cosmatos, here as a producer.
