It’s time for the Miley Cyrus bashers to wake up to a stark reality: Miley Cyrus ain’t going away. Not in 2014. Not anytime soon. Why? Because when you peel away the layers of twerk-inspired controversy, Miley Cyrus is creating good pop music. And with a major North American tour launching February 14, Miley Cyrus is going to be in our faces even more than she was in 2013.
I waited until now to pass judgment on Cyrus’s latest album, Bangerz, even though it was released three months ago. Frankly I needed some emotional distance from the phenomenon of Miley (which was wearing me out) in order to objectively explore the music of Miley. After listening to the latest edition of her constantly reinventing sound, I have to say, yeah, she delivers some fun, engaging pop on her first non-Disney album — the kind of pop that will endure if she plays her cards right.
You already know about the big moments from Bangerz — how could anyone escape the much discussed and spoofed video for “Wrecking Ball?”
Miley Cyrus swinging around naked on a wrecking ball got tongues wagging. But the video is just a way (and an effective one at that) to get attention amid the white noise flooding our multi-tasking lives. On the song itself, she reveals the kind of talent that will sustain her. Her vocals soar with the kind of epic style that Alicia Keys attempted with “Girl on Fire,” but without any of Keys’s self-conscious posing.