I got a lot of shit from people after I discovered “Wreaking Ball” about 7 months after it came out. It was just before Halloween two years ago.
I got a lot of shit from people after I discovered “Wreaking Ball” about 7 months after it came out. It was just before Halloween two years ago. I went out and bought a wig and managed to hobble together a pretty terrible Miley costume which I do not regret.
Fast forward a few weeks, I’d committed “Wrecking Ball” to memory and moved on. A number of female pop stars came and went (Carly Ray Jepson, I still love you girl!), but last night I stumbled upon the new Miley Cyrus album and let it be known I’m kind of hooked.
First off, the entire record is a wonderful train wreck. Clocking in at about 92 unedited-minutes, Miley Cyrus and her Dead Petz paints a picture of a good girl gone bad in the most genuine and modern way.
I debated with a friend of mine as to the quality of her character in relation to this album which can best be described as mastabatory.
“She’s a bad person,” he said. I questioned the merit of his comment and I blamed it on her upbringing. Between her own childhood celebrity as Hannah Montana, and the Scrooge McDuck-like amounts of money her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, has, there was an obvious real-world disconnect for this girl.
When I mentioned I was writing this review to some other folks they responded similarly – “she’s horrible,” said one person, before admitting they hadn’t even listened to the album yet.
That’s why I’m writing this review, honestly, but I’ll get to that in my summary at the end.
Either way, this record is really a manifestation of her relationship with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne (image below, surrounded by Miley and other young girls who should know better).
Coyne is essentially an American gypsy – he steals and pillages and wonders around the country looking for more. I’ve never been a real big Lips fan, in fact you’ll often hear me claim they have a really great sound which they stole from someone who did the same thing a year and a half ago.
Then there’s the idea that Coyne and friends have essentially been coat-tailing their way around the indie music scene for the last few years, releasing collab records filled with blood, relying on others notoriety and talent because he lacks his own.
Coyne and friends served as the backing band for the album which otherwise Cyrus takes EP credit along side Mike Will Made It and Oren Yoel, the folks she had worked with on 2013’s Bangerz. It was released on her own label, Smiley Miley Records.
Moving on to the actual release, humor me futher here and please press play on the widget below (if you haven’t already).
I’ve spent the day listening to the 23 track record, available entirely for free through her Soundcloud page, and there are high points and there are low points. There are also essentially Flaming Lips songs repackaged with Miley Cyrus on vocals (I’ll get to specifics here shortly cause it’s hilarious).
Stand out tracks
Dooo it!
“Yea I smoke pot/ yea I love peace/ but I don’t give a fuck/ I ain’t a hippy.” – Jesus Christ Miley, how you have fallen. While I’m admittedly not one to follow tabloids, I am continually pleased with the idea of Hanna Montana singing this loud as hell on the Disney Channel. Getting past her child-stardom, this track offers a solid beat with spacey lyrics which will be thematically relevant for the rest of the record.
Again, Coyne’s influence is undeniable. While this track deals with the universe, odes to robots and dead fish (the titular Dead Petz) are tackled throughout the rest of the album.
Dooo it! eventually breaks down into a distorted drum beat which can’t help but get your feet moving. Whether or not you’re okay with embracing that is up to you. Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying it.
Fucking Fucked UP into BB Talk
Clocking in at 50 seconds, Fucking Fucked Up is more of a sound collage than an actual listenable track. But consider her pop background, and hoping much of this was her idea and not Coyne’s handy work, I’m enjoying it.
And taking it into the context of the next track, “BB Talk,” it sets us up for Cyrus being surprisingly self-reflective. It’s a love song, perhaps to Coyne, that quickly spirals into Cyrus trying to understand where things went wrong in a relationship. She complains about PDA, being too close, and forcing her into a relationship role she’s not comfortable with.
She also seems to refer to her past boyfriends as “dick heads” which I’m going to start doing immediately.
The simple clap beat and vocal track is brought up by her tumblr-esc explanation of life and love and love lost… and getting fucked so her SO will “stop baby talking.”
“I like when you send me the queen emoji, but when I send you the monkey with the hand over its eyes, that’s when things get too weird for me” she banters, in a spoken word style, before recanting almost all the bad things she’s just said because the subject of the song once gave her a 15 minute orgasm.
Bang Me Box
This track is the first of a number of disco songs on the record. I say that with a really weird level of excitement. I’m all for the disco resurgence, but Miley’s take is really fantastically messy. As the title would probably suggest, this entire song is about her begging someone to “Bang her box.” She can get on top. You can take pictures and position her body. Here she is, here you are… she wants it so hard… finger her heart.
Cyrus Skies
Miley’s attempt at a James Bond theme lands in a surprising way. While her voice sounds smokey and abused for most of the record, she manages to belt it out and hit the high notes reliably on this track. Again, self-reflecting in nature, she’s some kind of even more drug addled-Lana Del Ray this time around.
It makes me want to put on a long, flowing robe and stroll around my apartment with a cigarette in my hand along side a very large glass of red wine.
Lighter
This is actually a REALLY solid track. 80’s influences hang heavy as the synth drum roll kicks on the 8’s and treble-heavy guitars swing us through this sultry ode. “We never truly see ourselves/ we gotta leave it up to someone else to see how beautiful you really are…” she sings softly, calling you to her bed which might be covered in body fluids.
Obvious Flaming Lips songs: (I’m going to group all of these together because I’ll be saying the same thing for all of them)
Long winded chorus’s, epic synth keys, dreamy effects, clean acoustic guitar rhythm back tracks, and lots of clasping arms with your brother or sister while swaying to the beat – how I’d describe the best known Flaming Lips tracks and every song on this list.
Karen Don’t Be Sad
The Floyd Song (Sunrise)
Something About Space Dude
Many more….
——-
I’ve spent way too much time writing about this record. I’m getting yelled at by people for not putting this time and energy into more important projects, but there is a reason I’ve dove this hard into Miley’s newest project.
Hipsters will ignore her for her pop-past, and her fan base is already noticeably terrified as she continues to transition into a collection of glitter and fluids bound by human flesh.
Sure, it’s easy to say “oh man, Miley is awful!” but she’s doing something different and scary and all on her own (except for help from Coyne). She continues to run from her pop star roots at breakneck pace, leaving a wake of sonic destruction behind her, and that’s a good thing.
There’s heart in here – or a lot of LSD – and it shines above the haters, above the critics, above the hipsters with arms folded.
Sure, she’s got a silver spoon and has the capacity to try and fail – but remember her peers who’s own freak outs were just as televised and trashed. Britney Spear’s shaved head and return to mediocre electro-pop, Christina Aguilera’s switch into prime time TV – where’s the fun in that?
To quote the high father Neil Young, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.
Google Miley Cyrus and see what pops up – who she’s sleeping with, what she did at the club last night, who she’s fighting with on twitter. Sadly, not much about her actual music, and when someone puts this much into a record, you can’t help but wonder about the stories we’re not reading.
If you’re gonna do something, do it big. And Miley went fucking big this time around. And God bless her for it.
