Miley Cyrus — or just “Miley” after dropping her last name in August — released a new album last Friday. But while the week has brought forth a plethora of exciting new releases, including tracks from beabadoobee and Carly Rae Jepsen, Miley’s contribution, “Bass Persuades,” fell uncharacteristically flat.
Arriving only a little more than a year after her last album “Something Beautiful,” Miley’s newest record attempts to dive deeper into the moodiness and darker tones of her prior release. Leaning away from her traditional pop image and more toward gritty electropop, Miley first teased the album drop with the release of the titular track, “Bass Persuades.”
The song takes disappointingly few risks as an opener to the album, making Miley’s “rebrand” immediately underwhelming. The title track is certainly sonically strong with its thumping synth and bass, featuring a catchy and danceable tune that is fitting for the background music of a club. But other than that, the song doesn’t inspire much else.
Right after, “Different Religion” offers a refreshing respite from the album’s lackluster beginning, with a unique and raw sound featuring Model/Actriz. The song stands out against its largely bland backdrop with a harsh yet sultry sound. Its raspy tones and sinister synths wholly complement the new aesthetic Miley seems to be embracing.
That being said, a common theme across the album — “Different Religion” included — is a lack of lyrical substance. Unfortunately, lines like “my god’s a hot body” and “he drives a fast car” don’t expand on the dark self-reflection introduced by “Something Beautiful.”
This unfortunate trend continues in “Let’s Get Married,” a song entirely forgettable in lyrics and tune. The one-note backing track and basic melody leaves little to the imagination. “Neon Signs” also joins this realm of the forgettable. The innocuous nature of the lyrics and melody fade into the rest of the album, contributing yet another song that tackily grapples with devotion.
Even Miley’s stunning voice — one of the album’s redeeming factors — is underutilized. The singer’s vocals have matured beautifully since her early career, and yet, they are rarely used to their full potential. “REDLIGHTS” is one of the few songs that demonstrates Miley’s vocal power at its best.
Flipping the switch yet again, “Innocent Ways” returns to the moodier feeling of “Different Religion” and the rave-like quality of the song offers a glimpse at Miley’s attempted rebrand. The song is then juxtaposed with “Snow,” which despite the rough transition is one of the few ballads on the album that shows signs of emotional depth. It retains the driving pulse and tone of tracks like “Innocent Ways” but with less distortion, instead prioritizing the meaningful lyrics and the singer’s rounded voice.
This powerful song should have been the end of the record, but Miley decided to close with “Bass Persuades Remixx,” a one-note filler whose only purpose seems to be to take the tracklist to an even ten. The song lacks substance and is not gritty enough to be deserving of the second “x.” The final track is a perfect encapsulation of the album as a whole: It promises something wild and new, but instead churns out something frustratingly safe, forgettable and unoriginal.
Miley is at her best when she embraces her weirdness, which makes the overall blandness of “Bass Persuades” — which she initially presented as being a weirder and darker record — even more disappointing.
Millie Barter is a senior staff writer covering RISD.
