Miley Cyrus has gone through a transformation. Beginning her life in the spotlight as an innocent tween sweetheart on Disney channel, she has now found herself in a world of twerking, molly-popping, 20-year-olds and multi-millionaire, gangster rappers.
But I’m not judging her. I find her youth as a country girl boring and childish compared to her new life in hip-hop, as she describes in detail on her latest full-length release, Bangerz.
Opening with “Adore You,” Cyrus expresses her lost love for that Hemsworth guy, and also effectively pulls me into the album. My expectations for Bangerz had already been surpassed on the first track of the album. Cyrus’ ability to sing was not lost along with her haircut, as “Adore You” is very reminiscent of Rihanna and almost Katy Perry-like.
The Twerk Master drops “We Can’t Stop” as the second song of the album—a guilty pleasure of mine and a well-known song among my demographic—then gives us “SMS” and “4x4.”
“SMS” sounds plain disgusting, like a bad parody of “We Can’t Stop,” and “4x4” is some sort of hybrid between country, Latin and hip-hop genres that truly hurts my ears. The features of Britney Spears and Nelly, respectively, do nothing to help these tracks.
Ms. Cyrus brings you back into Bangerz with “My Darlin’” and lets listeners see the Miley we used to know, with a feature from Future that I find enticing and well used on this track. “My Darlin’” is a highlight of this album and worth listening to even if you don’t like either aforementioned artist.
In “Love Money Party,” Cyrus is once again disappointing. This song, with its downright stupid lyrics and repetition of cartoonish production, has no place on Bangerz.
“Do My Thang” and “Someone Else” round out the album as two more highlights. I’ve always been a fan of simple, 808-enhanced beats and both of these tracks display that feature as well as pretty exceptional production and a good performance from Cyrus and her newfound rapping talent.
Bangerz, for having such a terrible title, is actually a fairly decent album. I admit I came into the Miley experience expecting mostly sub-par product. Although there are four or five songs that are complete wastes of time, I enjoyed the better part of this album and Miley’s interpretation of pop is right on point.
I feel as if I can truly hear emotion coming from Cyrus, as if the change in her personal character was the result of deeper trauma. Some lyrics may be a bit ridiculous, but the passion is there and seems to express very real issues Cyrus deals with on a daily basis.
You go, Miley. Do your thang. I’ll be rooting for you.
Rating: B-
