RCA
Urban Contemporary, 2013
I confess that I never found Miley Cyrus even a little interesting in the past, although I did love her song Party in the USA. It was that Hannah Montana thing: the whole squeaky-clean country lass thing made me feel like I should gnaw off a kitten’s head every time she comes over the TV or on the radio.
Now that she has decided that her Hannah Montana persona is truly buried and started hanging out with rappers and R&B singers as the resident female vocalist in their tracks, it goes without saying that she begins to become interesting to me. Okay, I have to lay it out: while I think she was ridiculous in that infamous performance during the American Music Awards show, I think her new trashy ho image is adorable.
Musically, she shamelessly decides to reinvent herself as a hip-hop diva, but I have to admit that she manages to put on a good sound in the process. Despite having to look up the Urban Dictionary a few times while trying to decipher the words to the songs, I find Bangerz an interesting and lively collection of well-produced fun songs.
We Can’t Stop is just adorable as this reggae jam that has Ms Cyrus happily inviting everyone to dance with molly and shake their rear ends like strippers. There is an infectious charm to the whole thing as she issues a call to do whatever the heart tells you to because, at the end of the day, only God has the right to tell you that you look and act stupid. Bless. Her duet with Britney Spears, SMS (Bangerz) is so messy and ridiculous that it is good – Ms Cyrus tells the world about the joys of battery-operated boyfriends.
While tracks like 4×4 and #Getitright are straightforward fun times, it is on the ballad Wrecking Ball that Ms Cyrus still demonstrates that she can wreck some serious damage on the heart. This is an amazing ballad, detailing with raw intimacy the collapse of a self-destructive relationship and its toll on her. The chorus hurts so good, and there are moments when the young lady sounds like her heart is truly breaking as the song goes on.
The whole party may be fun, but still, the tracks don’t break any new grounds and most of them do have a “Hmm, sounds like many other R&B or hip-hop tracks on the radio these days!” vibe. However, Bangerz is some kind of new beginning for Miley Cyrus, and it’s not a bad way to go.
