Every Single Album - 'Something Beautiful' | Every Single Album: Miley Cyrus

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

With 'Something Beautiful,' Miley Cyrus has put out her best and most cohesive album yet. Nora and Nathan talk about the disco sound she found on this album with songs like "Easy Lover," "Every Girl You've Ever Loved," and "Reborn" (1:00), some of the unexpected collaborators she worked with on this record (36:50), and how much comfort and confidence Cyrus seems to have found with herself as an artist (49:13). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan HubbardProducer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To every single album, Miley Cyrus. I am Nora Prenciatti, and as always, I'm joined by Nathan Hubbard for what is the last album-centric installment in our Miley series? Nathan, does this feel like a culmination of everything that we've been talking about for weeks and weeks on end? It feels like something beautiful. Who do you think's talked more about Miley Cyrus in the run-up to this album campaign? Us or Miley Cyrus? Us. No question, us.

And I've loved every moment of it. So if you're listening to this, it means that Miley's latest album, Something Beautiful, has been released on May 30th. There is still, we're going to have this conversation about the music,

which we've been listening to. There is a whole visual component to this record that we have not seen because it is premiering in about a week at the Tribeca Film Festival and then will be released in theaters on June 12th so people can go see that in theaters if they want to. But we're going to talk, I think, as we go through this, about how we

imagine that will play into this music and the overall release of something beautiful, but just to set some not ground rules, but expectations off the top. We've been diving into the music, but other than the music videos that she has released, which are components of that film, which is, it's not a concert film because it's not a concert, but it is essentially a visual album of Miley performing these songs.

We have not seen the rest of that. Nathan, you want to tell me a little bit about your mindset experiencing this music for the first time? My mindset was coming in wondering, if the breadcrumbing that she has been doing over these past couple of years where it has appeared through the course of the journey that you and I have been on,

that she's gone from creating somewhat disjointed albums to things that have more consistency from front to back. That doesn't necessarily mean that they have some of her world beating bangers, but that there was more they felt more like albums

and less like collections of songs built around a few massive hits. I was really interested to see whether this was going to continue that trend. And she has been signaling in the PR work that she's been doing around this album campaign

that she really loves this album and that she feels like as an album, it's some of her best work. And that to me, is one of the biggest takeaways of our entire journey. And I guess the second was there was a moment where this person whose brain in some capacity had to have been at least temporarily frozen because she really never had a childhood.

We didn't allow her to have much of a childhood because we made her famous so early. There was clearly a moment in the journey that you and I went through where she adulted and where the tenor of, at least the way she spoke about herself and her art really changed. And it happened around her divorce. It happened around the fires that burned down her home. And it seems to have happened around a new relationship that she's in. And so all of those things, the confluence of all of those things together was what I was most intrigued with as I pushed play on our little early access. How about you?

I think it was the same. I mean, I think the same. I mean, I think the, other thing that I was thinking about was Miley within the context of the last couple of years in pop music, especially pop music that's come from women that we've spent so much time talking about. Because as we've been doing that, what we've said several times and what you've done a great job of pointing out is that she is someone who, especially in the last chunk of her career, bides her time and picks her moments. And so I was very interested to hear, okay, how does this album sound to me within the conversation about her contemporaries and all of the other music that we've

been covering? And I think what's interesting. I was the word she might try to go make like a Charlie X-C-X album or something. Well, so, and she really didn't because my, one of my first reactions, I mean, to your earlier point, one of the first things that I wrote, down as like I take little notes when I'm listening is that this is an album-ass album. This is something that is clearly created with the idea of it being listened to from top to bottom. And it doesn't have that imbalance between certain songs that feel like they're going to be staples for the rest of time and certain songs that won't make that impact. Now, you know, you can argue whether that's good or bad, right?

but it doesn't strike that way. And then the other thing is that this is an album that doesn't feel in conversation with the Charlie X, X, X's, and maybe the one case I could make would be Chapel Rhone, but with the Sabrina Carpenter's and so many of the artists that we spend a lot of time talking about, rather it feels much more in conversation

with the 70s, 80s, and 90s in... Yeah. various spots and in various ways. And so it is an outlier, even though I have been thinking of it as one of these interesting points in this slew of releases from some of the biggest pop stars out there. Did you have any particular influences or artists that she feels like she's sort of talking to as you go through and listen to this? I think that you got it right. I think that this album actually is a wonderful synthesis of her musical mut-ness. And she is a student of the 70s, and she is a student of the 80s, and she has been a student of the 90s,

and then she came of age in the 2000s and into the 2010s. And there are subtle hat tips to Fleetwood Mac that are scattered through this record. there's disco, there's, but, you know, one of the things that when you listen to bangers, to me, it sounds very much like a 2013 album. This feels more classic to me. It feels like she's synthesized these elements, but it feels fresh, a little bit akin to what she did with plastic hearts, where it was definitely rock driven, but that album felt a little bit derivative, as we discussed. Not completely,

because there was a freshness to it. It sounded current, but you could really trace the roots of some of those songs in, as we talked about, in Oasis, in Stevie Nix, in the Beatles,

in the Rolling Stones. I don't feel that way on this album at all. I hear 70s bass lines underneath what feels very 2025, almost post-pop. It really, I'm pretty astonished that it took an artist of her caliber nine albums to make this album.

And I am equally astonished that she was actually able to do this. Because I think you wouldn't be faulted if through the course of a journey with Miley Cyrus, you said, you know, this is an incredible artist who makes big, huge, hits and definitely has messages in her albums, but that maybe she just album making isn't, great album making isn't her thing. And that the record of the year that Grammy that she won is exactly what she should have won. And it would have been a shame if she hadn't because she's made those Pantheon level songs. But that, you know, this just isn't necessarily an artist that makes albums that you think of. You compared it to Rihanna in that way. But, Yeah, which is not, I mean, there's no shade there, right?

Not at all. That's not, you know, that just is what it is in some cases. But with this group of people who, some of whom are now playing in her backup band as she's doing these promotional appearances, like they closed the doors and did the work. And that to me is, it's very triumphant as a piece of work because of that. And they managed to do it in a way that, again, has elements of all of her musical interests, but doesn't sound derivative to me. I mean, that's a high compliment.

I feel like I need to ask you directly because I think I can hear in both of our voices that we're like sort of still trying to process something. Do you like this album? I think it's terrific. Okay. I think it is something beautiful. and I think that without question, it is the best album that she's ever made.

I think that's true. I think I'm right there with you. I felt like I needed to ask because I agree with that. I really like it. I think it's really strong. I agree with the statement that it's her best album.

And I still within that, find myself grappling sort of like with what the accomplishment of that means. like what the stakes are, because while I feel that way, I also don't think that there is a flowers. I can buy myself flowers. Or something like that. Like the terms of this album are something different from that type of ubiquity and scale. And so I'm trying to figure out, you know, I think success for this album is this music being beautiful.

But I'm also trying to figure out. out, is this an album that's designed to win Grammys? Is it an album that's designed to allow Miley to play in some venues, in some small venues that she might like to be able to do that with? Is it designed to just let her express something that she hasn't been able to do musically before? Do you have, does any of that resonate with you? Yeah. My answer to that is that there's nothing about this album that feels forced. She's just more comfortable in her skin right now, and it translates in the music.

It's definitely the best recording of her vocal that's ever been done, in particular, I think, on More to Luz, but I think across this album. I just think it's kind of iconic. She's not trying to be something she's not in this moment. she's not trying to morph herself to meet what others, and in particular the female pop movement that broke out so massively in 2024 is doing. We talked about how she was sort of standing back and trying to read the room a bit.

And the album just doesn't try to force its way into something current. It doesn't try to pilfer from Chapel or Charlie. it just sounds currently her, and that is more than enough. I'm just so glad she didn't try to do something other. And so the answer to your original question is, I don't think they got in a room and said, okay, now let's make an album that's worthy of Grammy discussion.

I think she has evolved as a human being, and this is the manifestation of it. Just do what she wants to do. I mean, I think that comes through. Like, I think you can, you can hear for as much as there's a cohesiveness that's really wonderful. You do hear these little moments of, okay, we're still doing a little psychedelic stuff. Like, the stuff that is core, Miley, it pops up in a way that I think makes you know that it's coming from her. Does it, just because we usually do start with the biggest hit, the only song that I

feel like I hear trying to do something in that way is end of the world. Let's pretend it's not the end of the world. Which I love, and I really, really like that song. I would say that what you just said, that this feels like an album more top to bottom, they're not really reaching for anything in particular other than Miley making the music that she wants to make. I think that's true. and I'm not, I don't deny that with this song.

End of the world is the one song where I feel like there's some impulse to make it big and to make it be the type of thing that you would hear all over the place. Well, I don't think it needs to because I think Easy Lover is going to be a bigger hit. Really? I do.

I think it's the biggest song on the album and I think it's the best song in the album. Wow. So are you saying that Beyonce should have taken this for Cowboy Carter when she had the chance? I do. I do think she should have. Actually, I don't because I dig the way Miley is so good.

Is performing this song. And I think it is cute that there's a little tellum B in the, that she left in there. As sort of a, she's ostensibly speaking to Brittany Howard who rips the guitar solo there, but she's it really was in there for Beyonce. But I hear your point on End of the World. I mean, End of the World, when we first heard that song, she was in tears in a room in the Chateau Marmont, playing it for a small group of people.

So you can show me how you're hoping. But tomorrow is just the saddest thing. Let's pretend it's not the end of the world. As a piano ballad, it started slow and sad a lot like flowers, right? we were good we will go kind of dream that can't be so

yeah and playing it for her mom in particular yeah but there's a lot more hope in the tempo that ended up landing on the record I love the chord changes

that lead into the bridge like I really like end of the world I don't think it has that that sort of nuclear magic that flowers does but I do hear it as similar in structure in that way. Well, it's just, it's hookier than a fair bit of this, and it feels intentionally.

And I really like it. I just, I think it's an interesting example of what you said, where you just can't always tell what is going to be a hit because I think it has a lot of, it has a lot of the same components. There's just some piece of rocket fuel in flowers that's maybe not an end of the warm. world.

But you really, you think Easy Lover is going to, I would not have, I would not have pegged anything else to overtake end of the world just because I think it's the one that's gotten the runway, but I really like Easy Lover. I mean, they're bringing the funk. Yeah, I'm just not sure. End of the World really caught fire in that way. And I think Easy Lover is the song. And the Whirlitzer, the groove, the same.

70s synth, the little bits of disco on it. It's a fucking killer song. It's really cool. Her performances of it, I guess we've really basically seen the video and we've seen our snippet of the video and we've seen her. She did it last night at a concert back at the Chateau Marmont, which. News Flash. That might be her most.

important collaborator, that building. She wrote end of the world there. She's, yeah, I mean, she's really turned this into whatever, the vibes in that place are. Did she live there at one point? There's the lyric. But did she actually live there? I've been living at the chateau. Shouldn't drop it, I should really go home.

Well, she was writing music there. So she was composing. Well, because there's the line I've been living at the chateau. but I've never stopped to consider whether that was truly autobiographical. I always assumed it was. That's a good call. It also seems like she's establishing a mini residency there. So if you want to see, you know, we'll talk about it.

I don't know that we're going to see Miley Cyrus perform all that much. But if you want to, your best chance might be to go post up there and just wait for a show. You know, I do want to say something as we start talking about the music and the songs. I have one bit of disappointment in this album. Okay. And maybe it's going to end up to the things that we are forced to cut as we are in every episode that we do. But I really want to see the visuals on all these things. And I'm actually disappointed that they didn't release it all simultaneously as one project.

I felt like she maybe had the opportunity to redefine what an album is. and to make the concession that in this era of Popstar, that the visual component of art is unavoidable because of social media in particular, but also just people's consumption habits. Now, it may be that because she, for her own mental health, I think, disengages from social media from time to time

and because she does have an appreciation for the music. Yeah, she does have an appreciation for the music. for the audio components of music in its purest sense as a form of media and art, that maybe she didn't want to necessarily bundle those two things. But we've spoken a lot about how she has the unique, innate, and in some cases, cursed ability to move culture by just dragging her finger in the water and watching the ripples go out. And I do feel like with the quality of record that she's made here,

that redefining what an album is and introducing that visual component could have been a really fascinating thing. And as you go from song to song, it feels really hard to appreciate the prelude, to appreciate the interlude, both of them, on either side of easy lover, without the visual. I'm sure there's something cool that's going on. We just don't really have access to it.

So it feels a little bit like sensory deprivation in a few moments on the album. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's right. I mean, I can see why she would not want the visuals to be exposed via social media in the sense that you have to seat a lot of control if you're going to do that. Right. Like there's one version of this where, okay, there's a whole movie and the whole film that they made and maybe the film is available on a streaming service or they upload it in some fashion at the same time as the album comes out. And there's a different version where you're clipping that all apart and putting it on socials. And I do think that that, the latter strategy, people are going to consume it in bits and pieces. But that's how it's happening now anyway.

Do you think it is, though? Even the videos that she's put out tied to the singles, they're from this movie, and it's being cut up and put out in a bunch of different places. I don't know why you wouldn't just deliver this thing all at once. Yeah. I mean, I guess if you think it's inevitable in that way, and I take your point that there are individual music videos out there and people can do stuff with that. but I don't think that they're fueling it. And I do think that there's... I think she wants people to listen to this whole thing.

I think she wants people to see the visuals and sit for the whole show. Yeah, she spoke about how intentional she was and the choices. Every eyelash and piece of hair was in a place and framed in a way that mattered. So I'm not sure then why we wouldn't see it altogether. I do think the...

I think it meant a lot to her to win a Grammy. And this is not me saying at all that I think this album is like, let's sit down and make some Grammy bait. I think it's so much more authentic than that. I wanted you to answer that question that you asked me. Do you think that this was intentional? I think, and I don't think this is, I don't think there's anything wrong with this.

And there might even be something wrong with it. I think it meant a lot to her to win that Grammy. And to receive a type of institutional support and recognition that she had, got in the past. And I think when you see things like, you know, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, I think, I think she might want that. And I think that's fine.

But I do wonder if some of the timing has to do with her desire to present these in the warm embrace of some of these really lauded venues and institutions. one thing that we've touched on in the past is for all of her experimentation and for all of the parts of Miley Cyrus that seem to be just completely charting her own path, her rollouts tend to be pretty traditional. Yeah.

And this one definitely, even though, you know, we are talking about something that has this visual component. And, I mean, I just want to see the clothes because every archival. piece that is in the music videos that we've seen so far, I know that there are five more that are going to be revealed in this thing. And I just want to see it so badly. But I wonder if this fits a little bit into what has been her pattern is to do things where she makes an

announcement in the pages of something like Rolling Stone or, you know, as it might be now, with the backing of a really respected movie festival. Well, I'm not put off by it. The album itself is something that I've wanted from her last, from every other album she's made to be totally candid. Maybe with the exception of a few of the Hannah Montana albums, which had a little bit more consistency from front to back, but they were in service of the show,

not necessarily in service of like an incredible piece of art. So I'm happy to have it and it doesn't bother me if, to me it's this like, you know, the sort of Socratic principle of constant self-improvement that we can always get better. And I find that in the way she's talking about herself, about her life, and care and attention that she's putting into her ninth studio album. What do you think something beautiful is about?

Do you think it is about that journey of self-improvement? I think, and let's talk about the lyrics. Okay. Because I think that she's a bit of a cynic about the world at the moment. I think she's distrustful of where we are. I think she thinks we're a fairly sick in society on the whole and that this is an album that both points that out. And it doesn't really try to solve it.

I don't know if there's an answer. I mean, it's that last lyric of the album where she says, eaten alive by the mouth of a monster while fearlessly calling out your name. I'm eating alive by the mouth of a monster. There's a little bit of defiance, but also surrender, which is a lyric that comes up elsewhere on this album. Golden Burning Sun, surrender is that consistent theme.

But if you just strip out the music and read the end of the world lyrics, it's not a particularly positive song about the state of where we are. No, I mean, it's about finding something beautiful, but within the apocalypse, basically. Yeah, yeah. And I think there are definitely shades of her woven throughout this. I think on Reborn, the Kill My Ego, Let's Be Reborn,

as the song almost goes through a rebirth, and that sort of, ends with her saying, give me all your love. And then the song sort of bleeds into Give Me Love, which is maybe the first song, first last song on an album that she's actually nailed in my view.

And it started, I wasn't sure that she got that one right, by the way. It felt to me, I wasn't, what are we singing? You're talking about Reborn or you're talking about Give Me Love? Give me love. Like Reborn, right, the end of Reborn sort of signals what's coming

because she's saying, give me all your love and then we get into the song, Give Me Love. But the, look, the orchestral part of this album, like we've seen her in all kinds of different genres and instrumentation from synthesizers to the traditional rock stuff. We really haven't heard Miley Cyrus backed by an entire orchestra, which we get in multiple places on this album. Yeah. Well, and that's where, I mean, that's where it feels classic in a way.

that doesn't have to be derivative. It just feels like she is using touchpoints and just working within a sonic universe that is not inherently tied to a reflection of music in 2025 specifically. It is tied to the breadth of sounds that you can make with various acoustic and digital instruments.

I mean, clearly a lot of people worked really hard playing on these songs. So I know what your favorite is. Is there anything else that you want to talk about other than the easy lover in terms of the other best songs? I think every girl you've ever loved is fucking badass. Yeah, it rules. It totally rules. It's like the ballet strings underneath the pose. I mean, it's got the throwback to Vogue, for sure. Let's be clear. But it's. it's in the vein of vogue.

It sort of stands on its own as some pretty iconic shit. I mean, it devolves into like another clubbanger. There's a moment on the record where it sort of turns. And before you blink, this album like, Walk of Fame, pretend your God. Every girl you've ever loved, reborn.

Suddenly it's like blossomed into a European club album right underneath you. Yeah, particularly those two, every girl you've ever loved into Reborn. I love that, like, disco dance floor. Yeah, it's definitely sonically, I think, the most interesting thing that she's made. And by the end of this album,

you just, you don't get that out of the gate. It just sort of slowly brings, there's a little bit of boiling frog that you start listening to the spoken word part in the beginning, and you get through some sort of traditional structured songs in End of the World and More to Luz, and then before you know it, you really are somewhere in a,

it's not even a Beezza. It's just like this sort of like underground Berlin club or something. Yeah. There's so many weird layers to those songs too because like every girl you've ever loved, it's this like catwalk disco thing, but then there's a lot of songs out there that sounds like that.

Not that many of them have saxophone. She's got two sacked. I mean, there's a sax solo in, in, uh, in, uh, in,

to lose. I mean, when did we fall in love with the saxophone? I mean, can we talk about more to lose for a second? Yeah.

I do feel like there's just like, there's one piece of, I don't think it's the best song on the album. It's not my, there are songs that I like more than more to lose,

but there is something about listening to that song, which I think is a great song, where you just go, oh, this woman was put on earth to just body a power ballad. Yeah. Like that's like if I don't play video games

So I'm definitely going to bungle this But like in the little video game character thing Where they have their different strengths Myles Cyrus bodying a power ballad It's a 100. It's a 100 strength out of 100. Yeah. And I think the vocal engineering on this song Is again as good as she's ever had it.

It's just this intimate hushed vocal To those soaring vocals that are over that sax solo like it's a very well-recorded and it's a fascinating documentation of a voice that in a lot of ways, as we have documented on this pod, has stayed the same. But there is more richness, more character to that one. I think she probably wanted this to be like greatest love of all or like a, you know, I will always love you or something. and it's not quite that to your point. But it is, man, you can't turn away from that voice. And I also think that when you see her do these songs, they do connect.

I don't have trouble connecting to this album just by listening to it. But I do think that there is something about watching her, whether it is even that first performance of end of the world where she can barely get through it, or in the videos that have been released so far, I do think that watching her sing these songs because a lot of what we're talking about

is packing a fairly emotional punch. It's not just something that's an earworm. I think it connects for me the most when I see her in front of a microphone, particularly with an audience to kind of play off of and connect with because I do think, I still just think that that's, her superpower is the sense of charisma and presence that she has and how when she's singing a

song that has real feeling in it, the way that she can sort of telegraph that to the people who are in front of her. Yeah, she's amazing at it. And I don't know, there's weird, there's a few, like, interesting cameos on this record. I mean, Naomi Campbell, obviously, doing the spoken word part on every girl you've ever loved. I thought, I was listening to it in a place where I wasn't looking at the name of the song. I thought on first listen it was Madonna. She never wears a watch. Still, she's never late. She's got that kind of grace. Did Botticelli paint your face? And I heard a little tip off that there was a surprise guest on the album. And so I thought, oh my gosh, that's Madonna. It would make perfect sense for Madonna to.

to show up on kind of what is a vogue tribute with the pose. You know, it's just... But Flea is playing bass on that alongside Pino-Paladino. Flea plays bass on every girl you've ever loved. Your girl, Danielle Heim, plays on Walk of Fame. Hell yeah. Alongside Brittany Howard. Which is pretty cool.

So there are little bits of interest hidden in the liner notes. Kid Harpoon makes an appearance as a producer on Give Me Love. Yeah, she's really managed to pull together a pretty broad musical family. And of course, whenever Miley talks about her process of making and recording music, she just sounds like she's like best friends with everybody. But it does seem like she, in reality, in reality, in reality, She actually kind of called in The Avengers in some ways, because to your point, there are people who are awesome people popping up all over the place here. Can I give you mine? My best song? I want to hear it. So, I think you make a very strong pitch for Easy Lover. And I had that sort of second on my list. I have to say, Reborn fucking kills me.

And when it starts with the Grigran. Gorean chance that I would have seen that coming. But I do think that it just has a groove that, to your point, it's part of the little disco section at the end. I'm super into that. And it's really, really fun. I do think it is a way for, for Miley to, I like that it's a little bit poppier than some of, one, what she's done in the past as she has entered into her adulting era.

and two earlier on this album. But I just think that it has such an energy to it. And I also think that that idea of ego death that she's talking about on this song is like what we've spent this entire series talking about with Miley, that happening over and over and over again. And so when, you know, I'm 90% of the way through the thing for the first time and here's this song where it's like, kill my ego. Let's be reborn.

I just was like, whoa, I can't believe she wrote a song. that's about that that bluntly, and it really blew my mind. And I'm super into it. And I think I'm going to listen to it all the time. Interesting. Is there anything you hate on this record? No, there is nothing that I hate. And that actually includes the stupid little interludes,

which I'm constantly railing against. I thought for sure you were going to, you're going to cut the interludes, though. I don't. So actually, interlude number two to me is giving Challenger soundtrack, and therefore it can stay. Okay. Interlude number one,

I don't really need it. The ones that I really take issue with are not the way that she's done it where there are no vocals. It's the ones where they're used as a mechanism to like explain the album so that you don't have to do the work of making it speak for itself.

But I didn't mind these. They're also both, they're very short. Well, I think they're going to be much better when matched up with the visuals. Yeah. And again, there's probably going to be like a 1997 Mugler archive that's paired with. So I'm not, I'm, I'm not going to put myself in danger of losing that. The song that I would cut if forced to do it, because I think that this album stands up as a complete product.

But if I have to, if I have to get rid of one, I would get rid of pretend your God. Okay. And I know I earlier said it's so nice. that Miley wants to give us a little acid trip vibe on every single album so that I know that she, you know, she really comes by it honestly. But it doesn't ultimately do that much for me. What if I told you that my conspiracy theory is that it's about Liam? And like...

You're more hung up on this man than she is, probably. He's always going to be her white whale. I mean, I'm haunted. Do you still love me? I got to know. like there's a lot of it's certainly looking back on a past relationship that's still

flying through her head bass parts in that song are cool okay I was going to ask you if you had a musical argument for it beyond the matter yeah I think the bass parts are awesome I think the bass parts on this album actually make it I think Pino Paladino is her most important contributor

he's taken all the cool licks from the 70s and 80s and mixed it with her stuff from the 2000s and 2010s and yet it still sounds fresh. And I think so much of this disco pop evolving into Eurohouse club music is grounded in his bass playing. It's pretty badass on this record from start to finish. Okay, so if that's not what you're going to cut, what are you getting rid of? I'm getting rid of the interludes because I'm...

No, that's not fair. That's cheating. Is it really? It's totally cheating. I mean, I'm protesting I'm protesting not being linked inextricably from the visuals. I'll tell you, I wouldn't, we haven't

talked about something beautiful. I wouldn't cut something beautiful. That song doesn't, it's a scene setter for me, right? The crash bang spark and then that chorus. Oh, that's my favorite part, the little descending notes of that I love. Yeah, but then the chorus comes in

and it's super dissonant, and it's decidedly not beautiful. So there's like this elegance in the verses in the pre-chorus and then bang. And I think that's the, the song feels like a musical representation of Miley Cyrus. These big, loud, commanding moments. There's chaos. There's rock. There's pop. It feels like a little bit of a calling card.

But I don't think I could cut that one. I suppose if I had to cut one that's, not an interlude that I agree with you, that it would probably be pretend your God, because I'm over, if my conspiracy theory is right, I'm over it. I've been over it for four albums already. It's enough. I'm not, I'm not introducing this remotely within the context of a song that I would cut because I'm really into it, but I feel like we haven't talked about walk of fame. Yeah. I mean, I think like there's that fun bridge that changes the whole vibe. There's a little vibe. There's a little bit of disco in that song, but like suddenly halfway through it, we're in, again,

it's like, it's like a gay club anthem. And, uh, that sets the tone for the rest of the record, really, because then you go in to pretend your God, then you're into every girl you've ever loved, then you're into reborn. There's a moment in that song where the album like just opens up, like a flower in the sun into something else. I got a, I kept thinking about daft punk when I was listening to this song. Yeah. There's some of that here, for sure. And again, it's just so out of conversation with the people that we spend most of this podcast talking about. Do you think, like, I, which I guess makes me wonder how she has experienced these last two years of music. Like, obviously, Miley Cyrus doesn't need a resurgence in female pop to come out and make an album,

right? Like, she can, she can do it in the dead of night. She can do it whenever she wants to. I, I really would love to know how she's processed that because she's been so wonderful and complimentary and supportive to so many of the Sabrina's in the chapels and Charlies. And she's always shouting people out like that. And that obviously doesn't mean that she needs to make an album that is in conversation with those people. But I just wonder how those two things sort of coexist for her. Well, I think this was ready a little bit of a while ago.

I suspect. And I think she wasn't exactly sure how to re-insert herself into the narrative. And I think she watched. I mean, we've talked about it, but Katie Perry really tried to just force her way in through the windows. And I think Miley Cyrus waited for somebody

to open a door. And she has music- But what was the door then? I think she got a little bit of space from 2024. and now with the visual part of the album and the music itself, I think, does stand on its own because it's not trying to be 22-year-old, 21-year-old, 25-year-old pop.

Miley Cyrus is only 32. That's the most amazing part of the discussion about her ninth album is that she's 32 years old. And there is a lot in front of her, particularly right now when it feels, feels like she has now discovered or learned how to make a comprehensive, complete, and cohesive album. That makes sense to me.

That makes sense to me. So you gave me the little conspiracy corner on Pretend Your God. I mean, I don't, but I do feel like we need to, this is not so much a conspiracy, but I do feel that we need to talk about the fact that the music video for Walk of Fame, It sounds like nearly killed this woman. She rolled around on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got like an infection in her kneecap that landed her in the ICU.

Yeah, you don't, you should not put your any skin on the streets of Hollywood ever. Yeah, it sounds like Miley Cyrus did a lot of that. And then the doctor asked her, The doctor asked her, do you have any idea how this could have happened? And she had to be like, So, yeah, I was rolling around on the walk of fame, and that can have some detrimental effects, apparently.

Oh, that is so gross. It's a PSA. It's a PSA to all of us. Just be very careful out there. Got to stay vigilant. Well, I'm glad that she didn't. That is so bad. But, you know, that happens in L.A. It is not the only place. Hollywood is not the only place where you should be very afraid of what lurks on the grounds in the streets of Los Angeles. So ominous. Yeah. We're glad that Miley is okay. What about a peak Miley?

Well, Peak Miley is telling us last night at the preview show that her next album is super experimental before this one is even out. She just can't stop. She can't stop doing this. Every time she puts out music before it's totally out. She's like, girl, I'm already in to the next one. I'm songs in. It's going to be crazy.

Just you wait. This is nothing. It's like, Miley, can I just listen to this? I haven't even seen the visuals. Right. The only reason Nora and I have heard this is because we got an advanced copy. Thank you for that. It's also not as though this isn't somewhat experimental, right?

Like, this is not a, this album is not, it's not top to bottom Gregorian chance. It's not Miley Cyrus, Tibetan, bowls with a Z. Like, she's gone further left to field. But the whole visual component is interesting. Like, this is not an album that didn't involve some risk taking. So I'm just like, Miley, stop doing this. Like, let it, let it have its moment in the sun. You know, as I'm sitting here and thinking about this album, and it didn't really occur to me until right now. But we keep talking about Billy and Charlie, or about Chapel and Charlie and a few others. This album surprised me in the same way that hit me hard and soft by Billy Eilish did. And it does have some of those

more electronic, clubby moments that sounded very authentic to Billy in the same way here, it felt authentic to Miley. It just wasn't forced. It was not. It was not. It was not. new and different and made my eyebrows go up. And it was interesting and drew me in as a listener. And I think I had the same experience listening to Hit Me Hard and Soft. Hit Me Hard and Soft. There were some songs on there that I thought were just, I mean, you know, birds of a feather, I just thought was like on first listen, that one floored me. There aren't songs on here that I hear and I'm like, oh my God, that's going to sit. That's flowers. But it has, from a vibes perspective, it has some of that, which is that she's just sort of eased her way into synthesizing some of those

corners of music, and it really works. The other thing that I think is totally peak-filely, which is another just little bit of info that she's shared in the promotion of this, which is that she had an original idea for a quasi-tore with this music, which it sounds like probably won't happen because of some of her needs to protect her vocal cords. But she had an original tour idea where she was going to perform it in, like, the woods and in special cathedrals. And she was going to do these little, little shows in very beautiful but remote and isolated and magical, mystical, seeming places. Right.

Until at the Disney Legends Award thing, Harrison Ford asked her if she had any upcoming plans, and she showed him the plan for it. And he was like, looks expensive. And she bailed out. So she decided not to. Well, it does bring up, like, this interesting point that she has, because everybody's been asking her, why haven't you toured? You haven't really toured an album since bangers.

Like, what are we doing here? And part of the uniqueness of this voice is that it is damaged. Like all beautiful things, they have seen or unseen damage. And she's got a vocal cord that doesn't work particularly well and that may not be able to withstand the grueling demands of touring. Now, I don't think that she completely shut down the possibility. I think she just was telling us that the traditional, let me go out and do an ERAs tour, a cowboy Carter tour,

go play stadiums, which she can absolutely sell out if she wants to. But let me go town to town and go do five nights in a stadium in L.A. That her voice may not actually be able to do that because, as she would say, she sings big songs and they're big moments and she goes for it. And she does. She does that all over. this album. Now, we are seeing her sing some concerts and go do, but she's doing six, seven songs,

five, eight songs. She's not doing a 20 to 25 song show that takes a whole lot of physical exertion and has to be done night in a night out. And she's not doing it five nights in a row. Exactly. Exactly. So I think I am going to be stunned if Miley Cyrus doesn't tour. Because first of all, this album is going to be really well received. It's going to be well reviewed. The fan base is really going to like it. It already is. I mean, we're not the only people who have listened to this via sneak peek.

And not every major outlet that I imagine will do a review has published theirs. But so far, the critical reception to this music is like very, very strong. Yeah. And to me, the only question is whether or not. not easy lover takes off as a hit. Because if it does, then you've got something that's going to really go bananas. But regardless, there's going to be demand for her to tour this. And sure, she's made this movie, which is maybe to substitute for it. But, you know, you could see her creating some kind of a residency where she is playing one night a week in Vegas or two,

or, you know, she does a weekend of three shows every three weeks or, you know, I think the ticket price and the demand for this is going to be high enough that you're going to have economic opportunity if they can structure the touring in a way that works for her life. And her life now is clearly she's in a relationship with Max, who is a producer on this album and plays drums in the live band and on a number of the tracks on this record. She is deeply focused on her own sobriety, it appears.

She is obviously reconnecting. with family in ways that she hasn't for a while and she has this fragility in the epic voice that we get to hear all over this record, I think it is possible still to structure. So I suspect that they will find ways to get her out in front of people. Because I think this music deserves it. And you can just see as she's doing these Chateau Marmont shows, like she's kind of busting at the seams to get out and preen a little bit. She's earned it. Yeah.

I mean, I think that she will forever be one of those artists who, sure, he is, does the SNL anniversary shows, is appointment viewing when she does a Grammys or anything like that. I mean, the thing that I just don't know enough to wrap my mind around is where the, where the inflection points are in terms of how much stress to her voice is too much, right? Is it is it the size of a venue, right? How much is she really going for it if she were, say, performing in a stadium versus performing these intimate things at the Chateau Vermont? Is it one night a week versus three nights a week?

Is it doing one night a week for 10 weeks as opposed to two nights a week for five weeks? Like, I just, I don't know enough about what her voice can handle and what she can handle to know what that looks like. And I think she has been pretty frank in saying that it's, it's what she can handle. And then it's also, if she wants to do the type of show that she wants to do, which again, let's remember that this is the person whose mind in the first and foremost instance goes to, let's do it in the woods or inside a remote cathedral at like, She's not someone who, she is someone with the instinct to put on a show. What does that cost? If you can't do it at scale, does it make sense? Is there a way to make that happen?

So I don't know. I agree with you that I think that we will see her perform this more than we have to date and more than just via the movie, which I think is wonderful because I think she is a natural-born performer. And by the way, that's why I don't think I gave you my most important collaborator, because as much as I agree with you that the production around her vocal on this album is the best that it's ever been through her discography and it was really,

really good. I do think that something connects when you see her perform her own music. And so I think the cinematographer for the movie who's been Wad de B, I just, I think that's going to be an essential piece for me. at least to really connect with these songs is watching her perform them. So that's sort of my choice as the stand-in for the movie.

I think what I'm really saying is I think the movie is the most important collaborator. Okay. I'll take it. I mean, I don't want it to replace the live performance because we just haven't had that from this artist. I know, but I feel like if it does, it means that she can't, you know?

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, well, let's see. I think she left the door open to find something. The best news is that there's so much demand that the economic model will survive something that gets done potentially at subscale relative to a Beyonce or Taylor machine that rolls out and hoover's up as much of the demand as you possibly can. I think she could, I would love in the same way that I want to. wanted them to kind of reinvent what an album is, I would love to see her potentially have an opportunity to reinvent what a tour actually looks like when you have achieved the enduring amount of demand for your live performance that she has. And maybe she can figure out a way

to take it to a cathedral. Harrison Ford ain't no tour promoter. I know, Miley, don't let him get you down. You can do whatever you want. I'll go to the woods. Yeah, I mean, I'd love to go to the woods and, or a good theater. I mean, there are ways to get creative when you can, when you can charge at least some portion of the house, a lot of money. You don't want this to be an Elizabethan theater where you have rich people in the front and the plebes in the back.

Yeah, well, I mean, which most shows already are. Ultimately become, but I think that because she has, you know, if you controlled access and they clearly are able to get some subset of fans, into some of these promo shows. And so I think their biometric identity allows you to identify, you know, who the person is on the other side.

And that's getting implemented. I'm sorry. Am I podcasting with the NSA all of a sudden? Well, look, it's hard because if you don't know who the other person on the end of the transaction is, Miley can think that she's selling, you know, tickets for $50 to her most passionate fans.

but if somebody is just pretending, how do you validate that that's who it is and not a broker who's going to turn around and resell a ticket for $5,000, $10,000? So that's the challenge that she'll have in that situation because certainly she doesn't want to just sell it off to the highest bidder. But the point is that there will be opportunities

to create sections that are high-priced and open to anybody that can help fund an experience that will allow her to tour in her way that protects that voice. I almost don't want to validate the impulse to be on to the next thing so immediately. Yeah. But since she's told us that whatever is coming after this

is super experimental, what do you think that means as it relates to this album? Do you have a next album appetizer? I don't know. that's what I sort of penciled in in my mind on this one that she told us there's she told us what's coming but it wasn't in the music on this record it was just that there's something more experimental I'm intrigued by her group of collaborators I think that you know she's like a she's like a rescue dog of full of musical DNA you know like I got a dog that's half husky but then he's

everything else. He's Australian cattle dog and he's 10 kinds of terrier and he's got German Shepherd in him. Like he's all these different things. His name is August. And what is that after? That's after a song on a Taylor Swift album. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that. Sorry, didn't mean to cut you off there. But she's kind of August in her own way. I mean, He looks like that creature from the never-ending story. And it's just like this magical mix-up of DNA. And that's kind of what Miley is. And it percolates through in Danielle Heim being on this thing.

Why were they in a studio together in Flea? In Taylor Hawkins, who played drums before he passed. Like she clearly has a broad, Dolly Parton. Like in this entire journey, we've seen all these people who start to pop up in various places on her on her albums. Brittany Howard on this one, we're not calling Naomi Campbell a musician. Although, I don't know.

I mean, the poses that sound like Vogue, there's a reason you thought that might have been Madonna. Yeah. She delivers. Let's give Naomi Campbell her flowers here. She delivers.

She does. But I think we're talking about somebody who is really outside of Kelly Clarkson, probably our best cover artist, our most interesting cover artists. Wow, let's get them in a room together. And so I think where she goes from here,

this album actually buys her the liberty to go not necessarily do Dead Pets Part 2. I think that's what's happening. But I don't doubt now that she's capable of making a cohesive album as she has.

So now she can go do whatever the heck she wants. She doesn't really need it. She's got her Grammy. Now she can go explore more and she can do something that's a little bit left of center and that allows her to... I think these interests, right? She's dabbled in all of these different genres. She's worked between old and new.

I think all of that informs the art that she creates going forward. And if she happens to do something super weird, I'm into it. like what would that be like a polka album who knows you said you think of her as a Nashville artist you think of her as a country artist that's exactly what I was just going to say

the one thing that she's never done has gone full country yeah now it would it would be a little Beyonce-esque but she wouldn't have to work as hard to earn the credentials for it

as Beyonce did yeah Although I... But I don't think that's the case. I think that's something Miley has in her at some point. I would be surprised if that's the next place that she goes. Yeah. I just feel like she's surrounded by...

The way that she talks makes it seem like she is surrounded by a sea of gay men at basically all times. Yeah. And that there are a lot of like sort of impromptu dance parties that are coming out of that group of people. And that group of her friends. And there are so many, we talked about the Vogue moment. There are so many little disco moments that I think are really, really fun that come through here. I do wonder if that reflects a little bit of who she's hanging out with and what it sounds like when Miley Cyrus and her friends have an impromptu dance party. And I just, I get this.

I wonder if that's taking her in a slightly different direction than. Oh, let me do my Return to Nashville Foky singer-songwriter album. Again, I totally think she has that in her, but I just would be surprised if that's what's next.

Put the wig on and make Meet Milie Cyrus, too. She still has the wig, by the way. Did you watch her on Jimmy Kimmel? It's probably itchy. Talk about her storage units? No. She keeps a lot of storage units. And she said that she has, so she has an iPad where she can look up like where her stuff is.

Right, she's got it inventoryed. She has it inventoryed. So she can pull up like where the Hannah Montana wig is and she has some of the outfits and she has all that stuff. But one of the wigs is stored next to the ashes for one of her dead pigs. God, she's so weird. We love you, Miley. That's it. That's what I wanted to share with you.

Well, I don't think the pig is around anymore. So unless you're saying put it on the urn or whatever it is. I just mean back in the day. Back in the day? I don't know. I don't know if Miley Cyrus ever let her pig wear the Hannah Montana wig. Well, whatever. It's a really interesting question, Ethan.

That's why we do this. That's why it's such a joy to get on the mic with you every week. Miley, let's get weird. Whatever you do next, I'm back in because this album really is a breath of the fresh air and it feels, to me, it's an important model for the generation behind this up and coming generation, which is that if you sort of stay, it sounds so stupid and cliche, but like this is a reflection of Miley Cyrus's evolution and sort of growing up and comfort with who she is. And I do think there's some other artists that we've covered who've really

struggled to just be themselves and be where they are. I think for fear of not being good enough, not being enough. And that is a theme that has percolated throughout Miley's music, uh, lyrically. Uh, I wouldn't call her like a great American poet, um, but that is something that she has told us time and time again, which is that she is this massive star in a presence, but that she at times wonders if that is if she is enough. And man, if nothing else, post-Grammy and post-personal situation and definitely now post something beautiful, I hope she goes forward as an artist knowing that she is enough. You spoke of some of the lyrics. Do you have a favorite one? You know, I don't, I put the last line in the album.

I'm eating alive by the mouth of a monster. I fearlessly calling out your name. because I'm eaten alive by the mouth of a monster while fearlessly calling out your name is just a weird way to end an album called Something Beautiful. I wasn't deeply moved by the words on this album. I also do not have the full liner notes that include the lyrics.

So we'll spend a little more time. Is there anything that sort of resonated deeply with you? I mean, I really found the Kill My Ego refrain on Reborn to be less so lyrically beautiful, but really captivating because that idea has come through as so central to her whole arc. And so to hear her just address it so frankly to me just really made the hair stand up in. the back of my neck. And so that's the one that I will come back to. I mean, I agree with you that this isn't an album that's necessarily communicating in a primary way through poetry, although I do think that there are some really beautiful moments. I mean, even, um, even you talked about that like flashbang spark part in something beautiful. That, that's a moment that I really think just grabs me.

So I think it's there in little bits and pieces, but I don't think that that's the primary method of this album. Grading it is an interesting thing because I think to what you were just speaking about, it does feel like something that she's achieved that has been elusive to her. I'm really excited by your idea that Easy Lover could potentially take off. I have this little bit of angst that like, I don't know, it's like I want, I want everyone to recognize how far she's come. I want everyone to recognize what an achievement this is.

And this is the push pull of not having a flowers, right? Like I am a little bit like, oh gosh, if people don't go and see this whole film, which is a big ask, right? And if one of these songs beyond end of the world, which I don't think has caught fire, doesn't do something similar to that. Are people ever going to know what she's done?

And I think I feel sort of like sensitive around that in some ways because we've spent so much time going through the whole trajectory. And I don't know whether, like, maybe that's just something I need to let go of because maybe she has. Like maybe that's not something that I need to think about as I'm evaluating the quality of this album. maybe I should just be saying to myself,

she has done the really admirable thing of saying, I have the confidence to make the thing that I want to make and it's really spectacular. And I should reward that. And yet here I am saying that I have this little piece of angst about, was there something that just hasn't quite clicked even though I really, really like this music? Well, it's the reason that I hope that she doesn't look at first week's dreams.

I hope she doesn't become a prisoner of the numbers on this one. And it's also a reason why I hope she goes out and plays more. Because I think live, a lot of these songs are going to embed themselves into the consciousness of the audience. It's just a different world than when she started dropping number one albums as people were buying CDs in the mid-2000s. And I just think at this point in her career, getting this album right was the most important thing. And if the currency that comes in exchange for that is a massive amount of respect

and being untethered to go just make whatever music her muttoness fancies, I think that should be enough. And what is that equal in terms of a grade? I gave it an A-minus. Same. I really think it's worthy of that. And I'm with you that it may not have that absolute hit, but we have graded down her albums

through the course of this journey because they had hits, but they didn't feel like albums. They didn't have depth like this. Things that were packed around these massive hits. This feels like a purposeful, thoughtful, meaningful, deep album. and it got an A-minus for me. That's what I gave it as well. And I do think that there's more to be seen in terms of how this body of work

penetrates culture. Yeah, I'm excited for the movie. I don't know if I've made this clear. I'm particularly excited for the outfits. All right, Nathan, I think this is the end of our journey through the discography of Miley Cyrus at least to date. I have enjoyed it.

I am glad that you were insistent that we do this. And I hope the audience had fun too. Me too. Love you, Miley. All right, this has been every single album, Miley Cyrus. As always, I'm Nora Preciati. He's Nathan Hubbard. Thank you to Kai McMullen for producing this episode.

And to you for listening. We'll talk to you soon.