Miley Cyrus’s new album sounds at all at the same time

‘Submithing Beautiful’
Miley Cyrus
Columbia Records
Pop
★★
For a few years to this part, The confines between ‘mainstream/commercial’ e ‘independent/alternative’ are increasingly diffuse. Is a group of guitars independent that has a creative freedom but a budget of a ‘major’ behind? Can a commercial artist be groundbreaking and daring? Spring Sound was advanced to this a few years ago. Today no one would shout in the sky to see Miley Cyrus as a sign.
Precisely on his last album, Cyrus is the one who puts the dynamics of the ‘mainstream’ when phagocyte alternative micro-stances. And it does it perfectly. That is: failing loudly. ‘Subthing Beautiful’ sounds like many things, nothing at the same time. In the disc of the album we find collaborations of the entire ‘Star System’ alternative American: not only production is in charge of Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The Killers, The War on Drugs), but in their tracks sound for Model/Actress components arrangements, Foxygen, Haim, Alvvays, Lemon Twigs … and even a ‘Sample’ by Marie Davidson. And yet, There is nothing unique. No form, much less identity.
It is here Cyrus a fka twigs passed through the filter of ‘Spotify Pop Essentials’: there is Electronic sensuality but without riskemotional minimalism but without silence, inner choreographies but without body. A Rupaul without impudence and without humor in ‘Every girl you’ve Ever Loved’; Some postillo chromatics in the ‘prelude’ or ‘end of the world’ kinematics.
More disguise than metamorphosis
More than a tribute, ‘Something Beautiful’ looks like a ‘moodboard’ sonorous. One in which There are disc that of disc and the 80’s club, guitar pop, experimental electronics. Of Abba, by Grace Jones, from Grimes. And of course it sounds good, and of course it is powerful: it is Miley Cyrus, an artist of collapse. But the cuts are stuck with cheap zeal: if you get too close, they fall.
Miley Cyrus is still an intelligent artist, with an enviable pop intuition and a voice of millions. The album is heard, and It contains two precious songs that sound totally own: ‘Golden Burning Love’ and ‘Give Me Sun’; A star of this review goes for each one. But it is certainly not what promises. It is not an experimental album, it is not a revolutionary album. ‘Something Beautiful’ is not Cyrus metamorphosis: it is its Pinterest plank. Elegant, daring, beautiful. But flat. And above all, forgettable. Patri di Filippo
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