Miley Cyrus' Something Beautiful Is Pitchfork Certified of 5.6

[RAMROD 108,173]

Cyrus has called Something Beautiful her “gayest” album yet, but its “gayest” song sounds like it was engineered by a marketing team trying to spike Fiji Water sales during Pride.

Something Beautiful, Cyrus’ follow-up to her 2023 LP Endless Summer Vacation, features a credit roster that rivals the length of this review. It is a concept album without a concept: “My idea was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture,” Cyrus told Harper’s Bazaar last fall. Executing that vision, however thin, required an army of indie rock vets: Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, the War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, Nick Hakim, Alvvays’ Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, the Lemon Twigs’ Brian D’Addario, and Haim’s Danielle Haim, just to name a few. Cyrus executive-produced Something Beautiful with Shawn Everett, who also plays a number of instruments on the 13-track album—a tonally confused entry in Cyrus’ catalog that lurches between hi-fidelity art rock and soggy, warmed-over pop. Directionless and thematically vague, it starts with a bang and ends in a whimper.

Something Beautiful is crammed with nonsensical lyrics that operate on their own unworldly logic, always in service of a rhyme scheme or syllabic meter rather than actual meaning. In other words: They’re patently dumb. A few favorites: “In my dreams I see your face/It hits me like a thousand trains.” “I’m losing my breath, yes/Boy you’re marking up my neck-lace.” “A tower that’s made of risqué, rude temptation.” A tower made out of what, exactly? What do you mean marking up a necklace?! Cyrus—she of “Butterflies fly away… Party in the U.S.A.” fame—should know that if the songs hit hard enough, we wouldn’t be asking a damn thing.

The most egregious missteps on Something Beautiful are its pop songs. There is nothing remotely close to the tepid but inviting hooks of “Flowers” within its 52-minute runtime, despite many attempts at funk and disco-tinged hits. “Easy Lover” feels like another Bruno Mars castoff, with its walking bassline, stomping beat, and chirping “oohooh-ooh-oohs.” “You’ve got the love I always needed,” Cyrus rasps over Brittany Howard’s electric guitar. “Tie me to horses and I still wouldn’t leave ya.” This one stilted line sums up the entire song: It’s referential, uninspired, and really just a rearrangement of pieces that don’t quite fit in their new configuration.

That’s the reigning issue with Something Beautiful: It is more interested in signaling than embodying. Cyrus can access the best musicians and producers, and she can register a genuine interest in more subversive art, but few songs on her new album feel like they emerge from experience, or a burning desire to explore new sounds. It’s possible Cyrus is completely aware of her own limitations here. “I’m in the record business,” she recently told The New York Times. “When I sign a contract, they’re buying records that they wish to sell, so I understand that I am setting myself up to become merchandise.” But then Cyrus said something so vulnerable it was alarming: “At one point in my life, I look forward to just being an artist, untied, untethered. At some point I’ll get to do that.” I wonder what that will sound like.

 

 

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/miley-cyrus-something-beautiful/

[Bradley 58,819]

Honestly I can't stand lyrics that rhyme for the sake for rhyming (or attempt to force some kind of syllabic metre) even if it comes at the expense of meaning. There are some interesting melodic moments in the album, but I have to agree with what's said here. Like, do the artists actually read the lines and think, 'yep, this makes perfect sense for my listeners'? Some artists write something vaguely poetic and call it poetry.

 

'Something Beautiful is crammed with nonsensical lyrics that operate on their own unworldly logic, always in service of a rhyme scheme or syllabic meter rather than actual meaning. In other words: They’re patently dumb. A few favorites: “In my dreams I see your face/It hits me like a thousand trains.” “I’m losing my breath, yes/Boy you’re marking up my neck-lace.” “A tower that’s made of risqué, rude temptation.” A tower made out of what, exactly? What do you mean marking up a necklace?! Cyrus—she of “Butterflies fly away… Party in the U.S.A.” fame—should know that if the songs hit hard enough, we wouldn’t be asking a damn thing.'

Edited Wednesday at 03:38 PM by Bradley

[proxy 844]

Pitchfork is joke this day's 

[Cameltoe Chariot 15,101]

Another drab, predictable and needlessly negative review from Pitchfork!

"Cyrus has called Something Beautiful her “gayest” album yet, but its “gayest” song sounds like it was engineered by a marketing team trying to spike Fiji Water sales during Pride" stating this in a professional review of a queer woman's work is extremely offensive.

[lastpopicon 27,136]

suddenly very glad for the review them gave Mayhem, that was brutal 

[MaybeKermit 4,620]

14 minutes ago, Bradley said:

Honestly I can't stand lyrics that rhyme for the sake for rhyming (or attempt to force some kind of syllabic metre) even if it comes at the expense of meaning. There are some interesting melodic moments in the album, but I have to agree with what's said here. Like, do the artists actually read the lines and think, 'yep, this makes perfect sense for my listeners'? Some artists write something vaguely poetic and call it poetry.

 

'Something Beautiful is crammed with nonsensical lyrics that operate on their own unworldly logic, always in service of a rhyme scheme or syllabic meter rather than actual meaning. In other words: They’re patently dumb. A few favorites: “In my dreams I see your face/It hits me like a thousand trains.” “I’m losing my breath, yes/Boy you’re marking up my neck-lace.” “A tower that’s made of risqué, rude temptation.” A tower made out of what, exactly? What do you mean marking up a necklace?! Cyrus—she of “Butterflies fly away… Party in the U.S.A.” fame—should know that if the songs hit hard enough, we wouldn’t be asking a damn thing.'

say what you want but I'd rather have some random poetic lines than super-basic nonsense cringe lyrics (like some on Mayhem). So I hope your statement counts for everyone, and not just Miley. Pop music is honestly not really known for having the most deep + innovative poetic lyrics

[RAMROD 108,173]

1 minute ago, MaybeKermit said:

say what you want but I'd rather have some random poetic lines than super-basic nonsense cringe lyrics (like some on Mayhem). So I hope your statement counts for everyone, and not just Miley. Pop music is honestly not really known for having the most deep + innovative poetic lyrics

Well, that is the point of the review trying to say. The review main issues are not the lyrics, but the music is not hitting, so much so that it left this reviewer had the time to actually digest the song and realize how the lyrics doesn't make sense.

[Bronco 9,725]

47 minutes ago, Bradley said:

“A tower that’s made of risqué, rude temptation.” A tower made out of what, exactly?

48 minutes ago, Bradley said:

“I’m losing my breath, yes/Boy you’re marking up my neck-lace.”

That's an easy one- he's kissing her neck. 

48 minutes ago, Bradley said:

“In my dreams I see your face/It hits me like a thousand trains.”

Honestly this one is straight forward unless you're a non-native english speaker/have never been head over heels for someone in love or lust. 

The human desperation to ascribe or demand meaning upon everything will kill art. 

 

[HeAteMyh3art 344]

Too much "tonight", at least MAYHEM is an album literally described as a night out, here it's just forced. 5,6 is low though she doesn't deserve it

[clownery 6,050]

You know what... I think it does deserves that score  the album is incredibly bland 

[27monster27 12,722]

Pitchfork and NME are disgusting.

[alsemanche 92,835]

They gave Selena, Jennie, and Tate McRae higher scores so their opinion is literally irrelevant (but that's nothing new)

Edited Wednesday at 05:04 PM by alsemanche

[Ladle Ghoulash 21,535]

Watching some y’all whip yourselves into a frenzy over a mid album getting a mid review like clockwork is kind of entertaining ngl 

[ALGAYDO 31,959]

I mean, I’m not one to usually defend pitchfork, but they didn’t lie and they aren’t completely wrong here tbh lol 

[JustJames 940]

33 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

Watching some y’all whip yourselves into a frenzy over a mid album getting a mid review like clockwork is kind of entertaining ngl 

Right - complete with Gaga catching strays. (as if critics have always lauded her songwriting and lyricism; or, fans have ever taken all of her songs at surface value)