Long time fans of Miley Cyrus will realize that her latest album Something Beautiful is a different record for her from its first minutes. Starting with a prelude, like a prog rock epic, is something new for the singer nearing her 20th year as one of the most interesting big pop stars. The intro track promises something grand and arty with its distorted, electronic sound that recalls Icelandic singer Bjork.
So it goes for most of Something Beautiful, which attempts a grand sound and mostly succeeds at it. Cyrus has claimed the album is a concept record, and has namechecked Pink Floyd’s The Wall as an influence, but any sort of concept is not apparent on the first few listens.
Instead, what listeners have is a pretty good dance-pop-rock record that has some unusual twists and turns that mark it out as something atypical. The title track starts off as jazzy ballad, before it suddenly swerves into jagged art damaged saxophone and guitar solos. There’s a bit of King Crimson in there, which isn’t something one would expect from the singer behind “Flowers” and “We Can’t Stop”.
The best aspect of Miley Cyrus’ discography is that she is a musical chameleon who has hopped between styles over the course of her career. “Flowers” and “We Can’t Stop” themselves are two very disparate songs from the same artist. Her interest in experimenting with her sound and persona is something that has been core to her appeal since she broke free of the Disney machine.
Still, “Something Beautiful” the song is something different and discordant, and definitely piqued the ears of music snobs who normally paid no mind to Cyrus. There’s also the matter of the all-star list of collaborators she’s working with on this album that are mostly from the indie rock world. Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado who produced almost all of the album. Other tracks feature contributions from the likes of Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs, Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley of Alvvays, Cole Haden of Model/Actriz, Brittany Howard of The War on Drugs, Danielle Haim of Haim, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek. There’s also appearances from session bassist extraordinaire Pino Palladino and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“End of the World”, the excellent second single from the album, is where Rankin and O’Hanley’s contributions can be best heard. The song isn’t as experimental as “Something Beautiful.” Instead, it is a wonderfully catchy ABBA-esque dance pop number with dreamy overtones and a killer chorus. You can hear the sonic fingerprints of Rankin and O’Hanley on the melody structure and the backing vocals that are provided by Rankin herself. “The End of World” is not an Alvvays song with Cyrus on lead vocals, since the Canadian band has never gotten this disco before. Instead, the main influence is clearly Voulez-Vous and Super Trouper era ABBA and their melancholic European pop. It’s a real gem that sets up the album as balancing on a fine line between sonic experiments and pure pop music.
Unfortunately, the album fumbles its impressive start quickly on “More to Lose.” The song is a boring, uninteresting ballad that saps the energy from the first two tracks. It’s so dull that it makes you wonder whether you want spend 40 more minutes with this record. “More to Lose” is unremarkable, and it should’ve been buried on the back half instead of at track four.
Something Beautiful recovers with “Easy Lover”, a strutting soft rock song recalling Stevie Nicks where Brittany Howard is her primarily musical collaborator. The song was supposed to be one of Cyrus’ contributions to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, and you are left with the question of what could have been when you find out who was supposed to be singing on this song. Cyrus and her collaborators do a good job turning this into a pure solo number. The song’s biggest highlights are Howard’s guitar and Sara Watkin’s fiddle as much as Cyrus.
The rest of the album continues on an uneven, but mostly solid track. “Golden Burning Sun” is a perfectly decent if unmemorable song that has a bouncy psychedelic synthpop sound buoyed by Nick Zinner’s wilting guitars.
Despite all the indie rock collaborators, Something Beautiful is is firmly an electronic pop album with experimental overtones. On the back-half of the record, it hops around 1980s and early ’90s dance trends, including the Hi-NRG of “Walk of Fame” and the ballroom house of “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved”. These songs are fun and energetic, and it’s interesting to hear Molly Rankin sing backing vocals on a disco song like she does on “Every Girl”, which she co-wrote.
While Something Beautiful has some good highs, the lows on the album like “More to Lose” and the forgettable closer “Give Me Love” hold it back from its full potential. It’s still one of Cyrus’ best albums alongside Plastic Hearts and marks a new chapter in her genre-hopping excursions. Something Beautiful is a fun evening listen where the best moments outweigh its missteps.
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Miley Cyrus - Something Beautiful - 7/10
7/10
