![]() You’d assume a Miley Cyrus song called “Golden G String” closing an album in which subtlety is occasionally thrown out of the window, is going to be the very epitome of a messy banger. The closing song is a glorious red herring “Prisoner”, like Dua Lipa’s “Physical”, recalls Olivia Newton-John, but splashes booze on those neon leg warmers, while “Gimme What I Want” drops in some peak Phil Collins-esque drum fills to fully complete the ’80s bingo card. ![]() “Night Crawling” doesn’t drag Billy Idol into the present day, but rather backcombs its hair, slathers it in hairspray, and joins him in his ’80s pomp. So, we get lashings of glam rock on the Joan Jett collaboration, “Bad Karma”. So much of Plastic Hearts revels in the glorious tastelessness of the blonde mullet that adorns the cover. Courtesy of Sony Music The mullet on the cover is important On the Dua Lipa duet, “Prisoner”, Miley is caught somewhere between freedom and falling back into old habits. When she yells, “I don’t belong to anyone, I don’t need to be loved by you,” you feel that. On “Midnight Sky”, old relationships are stamped on by her dancing shoes, the song essentially a litany of empowerment slogans that dismiss any sort of victim narrative. ![]() You sense that Cyrus doesn’t wallow for long. So, “If you’re looking for faithful, that’ll never be me” later morphs into the climactic, heart-bursting, “If you think that I’m someone to give up and leave, that’ll never be me.” It’s an album that channels heartbreak confidence Over a bubbling synth pulse, Cyrus lays out what she will and won’t do vis-à-vis new relationships. The Mark Ronson-produced “High” channels the rustic, singsong around the campfire varnished hurt of the A Star Is Born soundtrack, while “Never Be Me” moves the ballad into the ’80s. On the epic weepie “Angels Like You”, the most obvious, show-closing “Wrecking Ball” moment, Cyrus glides between fragile heartbreak (“Won’t call me by name, only baby”) in the verses, to a full-throated roar of defiance on the sky-scraping chorus (“I know that you’re wrong for me, gonna wish we never met on the day I leave”). The various fractured relationships in her recent history - Hemsworth was followed by high-profile but short-lived relationships with Kaitlynn Carter and Cody Simpson - have given her plenty of grist for the mill in terms of channelling pain. The past few years have seen Cyrus accentuate the lilting twang in her vocals, drawing more from her country influences (her dad is Billy Ray Cyrus and her godmother is the actual Dolly Parton, so…). Courtesy of Sony Music There are a few proper “Wrecking Ball” weepie moments Plastic Hearts gives the sense that Miley Cyrus doesn’t wallow for long. Both, however, are linked by ludicrous, screaming guitar solos that seem to make good on Cyrus’s earlier assessment that she had been influenced by both Metallica and Britney Spears while working on the album. WTF Do I Know (that title is rhetorical) is a galloping rock stomper that recalls the stop-start rhythm of The Strokes with a tinge of glam rock, while Plastic Hearts opts for a more jam-orientated rock flavour, slowly blooming out of a piano and percussion intro. On the album’s opening salvo of WTF Do I Know and Plastic Hearts, Cyrus fully leans into the rock star persona - all-white vest and leather trousers - she exhibited that sunny afternoon, and for the most part it fits like a glove. “Glastonbury really changed me and my life in a lot of ways,” she said, citing it as a career-high that had previously been one of her biggest fears. In a Zoom call with journalists earlier this month, Cyrus said Plastic Hearts was influenced by her debut appearance at 2019’s Glastonbury festival. Here are five takeaways from an album that finds Miley Cyrus entering a brand new comfort zone.
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