Miley Cyrus has nothing to prove, but when has that ever stopped her?
The chameleonic pop star is back with her most daring album yet, Something Beautiful (out now on Columbia Records). It’s more bodacious than Bangerz and, at times, even wackier than Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, which is a feat in itself.
But the singer, 32, doesn’t go balls to the wall just for kicks; she has an innate instinct to challenge herself, to keep her fans on their toes and to celebrate the legends who paved the way.
This time around, Cyrus takes it back to the late ’70s and early ’80s, reinventing a timeless era defined by glittering Europop and operatic psychedelia. She goes full ABBA on “End of the World,” a luxe earworm that would be the song of the summer had Lady Gaga not packed Mayhem with viable candidates, and makes disco dynamo Donna Summer proud with “Every Girl You’ve Ever Loved,” on which supermodel Naomi Campbell delivers a delicious spoken cameo that recalls Madonna‘s “Vogue.”
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Not all of Something Beautiful is radio-friendly, though — not that Cyrus, the hitmaker behind “Flowers,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Party in the U.S.A.” and so many other global smashes, needs to cater to anyone at this point in her career. (Plus, who still listens to the radio in 2025?)
The title track starts as a slinky, soulful ballad before exploding into its experimental rock chorus with deafening and distorted vocals. It’s the most jarring thing to come out of the provocateur’s mouth since her tongue-wagging days but, fortunately, only a fleeting moment of madness.
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The back half of the album is where Cyrus really shines. The nearly six-minute thumper “Reborn” swells and swells and swells until it can’t possibly get any bigger, and the even-longer stunner “Walk of Fame” is indisputably the greatest dance cut in her expansive catalog.
It took the Recording Academy nearly two decades to give Cyrus her first Grammy (justice for 2020’s Plastic Hearts!), but with an album like Something Beautiful putting her in the same conversation as pop greats, she may want to make some more room on her awards shelf.
3 stars (out of 4)
