Pitchfork: Plastic Hearts

[COOOK 76,405]

   6.4

"Stepping confidently into her “rock era,” Miley offers a genuinely pleasing, though sometimes hamfisted record that staves off the awkwardness and missteps that plagued her previous albums."

Spoiler

"In 2017, she pivoted to back-to-basics country-pop with the painfully dull Younger Now, before, with little explanation or contrition, returning to the rap sound that had defined her Bangerz era on the 2019 EP She Is Coming, the first installment of a planned trilogy that replaced the former record’s freewheeling joy with a cursory nod to GothBoiClique-style emo rap and a typically inane guest verse from RuPaul. Both projects were relative commercial failures, attempts at image rehabilitation that instead removed a once-inescapable star from the conversation entirely.

Before Cyrus could release the sequels to She Is Coming, her life was upended, the vast majority of her new album destroyed in the Woolsey wildfire, and her decade-long relationship with actor Liam Hemsworth ending in a messy, highly-publicized divorce. In the wake of the split, Cyrus reset, scrapping her two unreleased EPs and pursuing a darker, classic rock-indebted sound. In August of this year, she released “Midnight Sky,” a cocaine-dusted disco track that addressed her divorce and subsequent high-profile flings in a surprisingly mature way. In the months following “Midnight Sky”’s release, Cyrus attempted to back up her newly conjured goodwill not through the release of more singles, but through heartbroken covers of Blondie, the Cranberries, and more. The writing on the wall was clear: Miley’s “rock era” had begun.

Plastic Hearts is not without precedent: Cyrus has been playing covers of the Smiths and Bob Dylan for unsuspecting audiences since her Bangerz tour, and, although a little reverential, her recent run of covers was enjoyable and endearing, a transparent attempt at proving her classic rock bona fides. Cyrus’ covers of “Heart of Glass” and “Zombie” are tacked on to the end of some versions of the record, almost like a gesture of goodwill, but there was little need: Plastic Hearts is a genuinely pleasing pop-rock record that, through a handful of canny stylistic and lyrical choices, staves off the awkwardness and missteps that plagued her previous albums."

"More than anything, Plastic Hearts raises questions like this, in the process highlighting a potential future career path: What if Miley Cyrus became an actual rock star?

When Cyrus reunites with past collaborators Mark Ronson—with whom she made the 2018 country-disco stomper “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”—and Andrew Wyatt, the results are thoughtful and surprising. The country-adjacent ballad “High,” one of a handful of future karaoke classics on the album, contains some of Cyrus’ most beautiful lyrics: “You, like a rolling stone, always building cities on the hearts you broke,” she sings, the crags in her voice given space to resonate, rather than erased. A line like “I don’t miss you, but I think of you and don’t know why” might seem simple, but it’s honest and heartbreaking. Best of all is “Bad Karma,” a raucous slow-build of a song featuring Joan Jett on vocals and Angel Olsen on guitar. Snot-nosed and silly, it’s a high-camp panto of ’80s hard rock, finding Cyrus and Jett trading one-liners—“I’ve always picked a giver ’cause I’ve always been the taker,” goes the delirious chorus—over one of the record’s few live drum tracks. It’s strange, outsized fun, and a glorious example of what Cyrus can do when she lightly plays with her own self-image."

"Ultimately, that’s Plastic Hearts’ greatest success: for the first time in a long time, a Miley Cyrus record is music first, headlines second."

Full review here.

Previous scores:

  4.6

  4.7

  3.0

[Guest Adarsh]

That’s great if you compare it to her old reviews 

[JRCF29 8,152]

They are correct that She Is Coming was messy, and that RuPaul guest verse = mess. I am old enough to remember when Miley was literally everywhere at the start of the Bangerz era, and I think that the GP is just tired of her 

[weed 67,047]

Dead Petz deserves so much better than a goddamn THREE   Decent review, Plastic Hearts is her best album since Dead Petz 

[Guest Adarsh]

7 minutes ago, JRCF29 said:

They are correct that She Is Coming was messy, and that RuPaul guest verse = mess. I am old enough to remember when Miley was literally everywhere at the start of the Bangerz era, and I think that the GP is just tired of her 

The Rupaul verse was everything 

[Kimmo 76,622]

I just couldn’t get into that album because it kept giving me Lemonade Mouth vibes... you can tell she has been influence by her Disney days, but I’m glad that she is more acclaim now 

[BleepBloop 10,191]

The only actually good songs are Midnight Sky and Night Crawlin so...accurate

[Lemondeduerl 3,239]

Anyways the album is perfect to me. 

[js4754394o9823 6,882]

.

 

[Togekiss 1,730]

Aww Younger Now is my favorite Miley song lol

[PeachJug 2,928]

36 minutes ago, weed said:

Dead Petz deserves so much better than a goddamn THREE   Decent review, Plastic Hearts is her best album since Dead Petz 

agree! I LOVE dead petz. I feel like it was misunderstood in a similar way as ARTPOP

[JoanneMonster 7,968]

this pitchfork guy has no taste

[hieronymus 8,230]

1 hour ago, Kimmo said:

I just couldn’t get into that album because it kept giving me Lemonade Mouth vibes... you can tell she has been influence by her Disney days, but I’m glad that she is more acclaim now 

You might've just ruined it for me, oh god