Hi, everyone. Smokethony Showtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Miley Cyrus album, Something Beautiful.

Here we have the newest and ninth full-length album from pop singer and songwriter, Ms. Miley Cyrus. One of my most anticipated pop albums of the year, even though up to this point, I've never been a super massive Miley Cyrus fan. Don't get me wrong, Miley Cyrus is undoubtedly a super talented singer, and one of a few artists who's actually managed to keep her career interesting after riding the Disney channel actress to pop star pipeline. I mean, in a lot of ways, you could actually say she set the tone for some of these newer faces who took a similar path and also got a bit edgier in their transition into pop stardom. I mean, it's funny to think of how many people just freak out on social media over stuff like Sabrina Carpenter's "Juno" live performance poses.

But I don't know. To me, that's nothing in comparison with the stuff Miley Cyrus was doing on stage during the Bangerz era. The outfits, the drugs, the twerking. I mean, sure, a lot of the music was terrible, but I can't deny it did turn heads, and it did successfully break Miley out of a lot of the expectations people boxed her into up until that point, which her previous album, Can't Be Tamed, utterly failed to do.

And I can also commend Miley for keeping the music interesting for the most part, and at least taking some risks on that front during this time period, too. I mean, there was that record that featured numerous collaborations with Flaming Lips, Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Pets, which was admirably weird, even if it is her biggest flop commercially and critically.

Subsequent records from here, though, showed Miley continuing to evolve and stay adventurous. You had her going back to her country roots on her Younger Now album. And then she headed in a protopunk Joan Jett direction on Plastic Hearts, which up until this point has been my favorite Miley Cyrus record. But her last LP, Endless Summer Vacation in 2023, in a word, was tame; about as standard as pop gets in the 2020s, I fear, with ubiquitous hits in its tracklist like "Flowers".

And I was worried that this album was essentially going to be the future for Miley at this point, that with nothing left to prove and with no one to shock or surprise, that she just settle into a really predictable pop path. But thankfully, on Something Beautiful, Miley's experience and maturity is manifesting in some pretty creative and epic anthems, which all kick off with a pretty surprising opener, a prelude with these Hans Zimmer-style arpeggios set to some spoken word poetry, some tremolo distorted bass as well, it sounds like.

It might be a little overly dramatic in tone, but at least there's some feeling behind the surreal imagery in the lyrics. The whole thing ends on this epic burst of orchestrations that are stunningly beautiful. I mean, handily the most grandiose opening to any Miley Cyrus album ever.

Then we have the first full song on the album, the title track, which was a mindblowing single, frankly, and sounds even better couched into the record. It starts off pretty inconspicuously, honestly. It's a bit of a spotlit, soulful ballad with some great vocal inflections from Miley herself. Light horns, distant pianos, nice sway on the beat. It's moody, it's pleasant. But right after the pre-chorus comes in, these blaring horns that sound as loud or as thick as something from a late-era Swans album or a King Crimson record. It really is one of the heaviest things I've ever heard on a pop album.

Then it goes into this incredible buildup on the back end with these wailing saxes, Miley's vocals intertwining with all of that. It's such an unhinged and unexpected wall of sound that gives the record an incredible start.

Now, from here in the tracklist, things to lighten up a bit. The sound of "End of the World" is very synthy, very peppy. There's a bit of an 80 sheen on it. But don't let that distract you from the fact that this track does contribute to an ongoing microtrend currently of end times pop. While it still very much is a love song through and through, it is simultaneously a bit of a reflection on the dire state of things currently. The vocal performance and production are a lot more measured in comparison with the title track just before, to the point where it makes this track sound a little bit like karaoke in comparison. Very expensive, very well-performed karaoke, but still a bit of karaoke.

I think the same is true to an extent for the following track, "More to Lose", which for sure, by comparison, is a much more emotional performance. But it still feels like the song you would pick in order to make sure that you're really impressing the audiences and the judges at a singing competition due to its dramatic peaks, its nostalgic changes, and very relatable similes that made me roll my eyes. Like "The TV's on, but I don't know / My tears are streaming like our favorite show tonight."

Thankfully from here, though, the record does pick up with "Easy Lover", which is this fiery string-kissed disco track, which Miley just sounds amazing over. Her voice just fits this era of music so perfectly. She has the range to pull off these more soul-based influences on the track, but simultaneously has this smoky tone to her voice, where she gives a dance track of this style, a bit of a Stevie Nicks or a Joan Jett edge. Again, it's very '70s, it's very groovy, it's very club-friendly, it's a little Bee Gees, I would say, but there's a darkness to it. There's a nastiness to it. And the track just gets catchier and catchier as it goes along.

From here, we go into a pretty strong final leg for the record as well. "Golden Burning Sun" is one of the more standard-sounding pop ballads on the record. I think it even could have been on Miley's last LP, but I actually do like the tune on this one quite a bit. I think it's a lot stronger than a lot of the material on that record. The lyrics do sound more specific and personal to this time period in Miley's life where she's looking for a love, a connection, a relationship that has a bit more depth and longevity to it.

Of course, the following track, "Walk of Fame", is a meditation on fame, which just based on how many of those there are out there today in the pop landscape, I would just write such a thing off now at this moment because, again, there's just so much of it going on. Yeah, that is something I would do... if it wasn't for the fact that the instrumental on this track is incredible. It's like this crazy electro pop and rock extravaganza with shrieking rhythm guitar, sequenced bass synths, persistent beats, these hype cascading refrains with a male vocalist. The chorus is very Gaga, the drama of it all. Also, apparently, Jonathan Rado of Foxygen fame is involved in the production and creation of this track, as well as others on the album. Brittany Howard is in the mix on this one, too.

But yeah, this track is just a six-minute monster, which undergoes some pretty incredible phases, including this complete electro disco bridge that has the soaring vocals on top that feel almost operatic in a way. The whole thing ends off with these haunting refrains. It truly is an epic.

"Pretending You're God" is like this art, rock, and pop meditation that has a pretty strong peak at the finish as well as a linear build. Seemingly, it's very much a song about being at a point of emotional weakness to where the person who you're into, it's almost as if they're God, the way they have a command over your emotions and maybe the love that you're feeling for them is unrequited. In fact, Miley doesn't even want to ask if she is being loved back in this situation. But I don't know if you have to ask such a thing.

With "Every Girl You've Ever Loved", the electro vibes return. We have a catwalk groove, spoken word refrains. The song describes this guy who's going through a lot of women and relationships, is maybe indecisive, can't really commit. Miley is singing about all the things that she and these women are doing for this guy, and she just yearns to be more for this person or any person other than just merely fun in the dark. Again, like many of the best moments on this record, this track, too, undergoes a lot of very dance-based, progressive and linear evolutions.

The track "Reborn" also brings more vintage late night dance grooves with more of a cinematic spin this time around, I would say, which I think is very much fitting for the lyrics on this track, which likens this love that Miley is describing to heaven itself. She's been in heaven before. This love makes her feel like she's there again, hence the whole the "reborn" thing.

There's a bit of a closing theme going on here, maybe a trilogy, among the final tracks on the record. They're definitely connected in a way because I feel like a lot of these themes and sounds are reinforced by the final track on the LP, which is just a jubilee of orchestrations. Sounds like the goddamn Garden of Eden. In fact, that itself is even referenced in the lyrics of the track, but it feels like we've reached the final resting place emotionally for this record. It's transcended into the spirit realm with the final bars of the record saying, "So I'll send my goodbyes to the earthly delights / While my perfect Eden goes down in flames / I'm eaten alive by the mouth of a monster / While fearlessly calling out your name." Which is obviously a very dark finish, lyrically anyway, which contrasts very strongly from the way the instrumentation sounds. So I mean, while I guess we didn't exactly end up in the place Miley wanted to be narratively in a way, it at least sounds like we're there.

But yeah, I walked away from this record really impressed and loving the vast majority of what I heard here. Not only was the writing on this record, I think, the best among all of Miley's albums, the vocal performances were top-notch. And on top of it, this is the best production on any Miley Cyrus album so far, too. I mean, not just because it's well-recorded and well-mixed and so on and so forth. I mean, it is certainly that. But there's actually a lot of moments on this record, instrumentally and genre combo-wise, that are much more adventurous than what you would get on your average pop album today. Sonically, Miley took a lot of risks on this LP, but they actually panned out very well, as opposed to when she was doing more experimental thing on Dead Pets. Those blaring horn sections on "Something Beautiful" sound way crazier than anything on that record, and yet this is like the more preferable and well put together album.

But yeah, a bold, creative, fun, captivating, emotional record that really showcases everything that is great about Miley Cyrus, just really powerfully condensed into the strongest crop of songs on any of her records yet, in my opinion, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong eight on this LP.

Anthony Fantano, Miley Cyrus, Forever.