An album’s success depends on a number of factors, but one of the most important is whether or not it flows. A successful, lucrative album is composed of songs that blend together to create a pleasing melodic experience for listeners. Miley Cyrus has missed the mark on her highly anticipated album “Bangerz” and produced a mess of collectively typical and unimaginative songs.
With all of the controversy surrounding Cyrus lately, from her Video Music Award performance that dominated the news for weeks, to her shocking transformation to the Rugrats Cynthia doll and overall outlandish behavior, Cyrus has managed to build up a lot of hype and speculation for this album.
However, it seems Cyrus should’ve spent less time trying to tarnish her Disney image in the public eye and more time on the production of “Bangerz.”
Signs of the old Cyrus show up on this album with pop-inspired tracks like “We Can’t Stop” and “Love Money Party.” Cyrus definitely knows how to produce superficial club hits that will inevitably help this album reach platinum. However, Cyrus also experiments with her style on this album and produces a variety of unstructured tracks with different vibes.
A progression towards songs with a more hip-hop and R&B vibe is exhibited through her tracks “#GETITRIGHT” and “FU.” The slow hip-hop influence within the album is slightly bizarre and unexpected. It’s a sound we’ve never heard before from Cyrus. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Combined with her cheesy pop hits and slow, smooth hip-hop tracks, she throws in a few emotional songs about heartbreak and emotional growth. The songs seem to be offhandedly thrown together to complete the album. Within the album, Cyrus managed to score a few collaborations with big-time artists like Britney Spears, Future, Nelly, Big Sean, French Montana, and Ludacris. But even with the help of these collaborations, the album comes off as confusing and frankly, a mess.
“Bangerz” is Cyrus’s attempt to show the world she’s pushing her old boundaries and making music for a different audience. Thematically, the album mostly focuses on the dramatic changes in her life, the heartbreak she’s experiencing and her love for her party life. Cyrus’s attempt to transform herself from her naïve, teenage self to her wild, yet mature adult self comes off as juvenile on the album.
Some would argue that Cyrus has never produced good music with depth in the first place, but her stacks of platinum albums and million-dollar empire would definitely contradict that. There are millions of people that love her music and fit the mold for the audience her music is supposedly catering to. Cyrus’s goal to show the world how much she’s grown definitely transcends her weak performance on the album.
Cyrus is more of a performer than an artist, but her reputation, notoriety and insanely obsessive fans are what will help her to inevitably succeed.
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