Columbia
Pop, 2025
Something Beautiful is yet another comeback of sorts from Miley Cyrus after her family drama killed her last album just when the going was good. Since so far there haven’t been any messy trashy family scandals in the headlines, things may just be looking good for this young lady, fingers crossed.
The title track is a musical jump scare, going from conventional pop to screechy metal chorus and back again, and it’s actually a beautiful kind of discordance that makes me wish that the rest of the album has been similarly experimental.
Still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the next song is End of the World, a joyous anthem that is all about not giving a damn anymore and just instead do whatever one wants. It’s upbeat, catchy as can be, and a glorious throwback to the radio-friendly mainstay of the 1980s.
As the party continues with tracks like Reborn, Easy Lover, and Walk of Fame, it’s clear that Something Beautiful is a great but anomalous oddity here. Ms Cyrus is all about bringing back the unapologetically cheesy and upbeat pop beats of the 1980s as if Pat Benatar and Belinda Carlisle are the cool kids all over again.
It works, because the songs are way too catchy for words while at the same time giving off a contemporary vibe in spite of chasing 1980s nostalgia so hard.
Even the most “modern” song here, the glorious Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved, can’t resist having a saxophone to give it a late-night bluesy tinge of class to still bring to mind some 1980s vibe. Say what you will about Naomi Campbell, her spoken words only increase the sex appeal of the song by a hundredth fold. This song is pretty shameless in its intention to be the ultimate drag lip sync anthem, but it works so, so good. Had Lady Gaga not stopped chasing queer clout now that she’s all hoity toity and respectable, she’d be green with envy that she isn’t the one singing this thing!
Also, bless Ms Cyrus: these songs are clearly not made with TikTok first and foremost in mind, and most of the songs run over the recommended “TikTok friendly” length.
All in all, this isn’t a deep or introspective album — we leave all that to Noah Cyrus — but it strikes the perfect balance of fun and frivolity without being too fluffy and vapid.
Now someone please chain up the Cyrus parents in the basement until this album can run its natural course with any distraction from those wretched people!
