The not-so-Disney-Princess, Miley Cyrus, continues to take a dramatic departure from her Hannah Montana image with her new album “Bangerz.” This pixie-cut, twerking pop star’s new album sounds as diverse as she is. The record was produced by Mike Will Made It and Pharrell Williams featuring guest artists Brittney Spears, Nelly, Big Shawn, Future and French Montana.
Her album opens with “Adore You” a melodic love song that will warm the hearts of hopeless romantics everywhere. In the chorus Cyrus sings, “When you say you love me / Know I love you more / When you say you need me / Know I need you more / Boy, I adore you / I adore you,” leaving listeners wondering if she was referring to ex-fiancé, Liam Hemsworth in this song.
Her album then takes a dramatic transition from love into her hit single “We Can’t Stop,” a fun party song that references controversial topics such as drinking and drugs. Although, her song does contain positive messages reminding listeners to “Remember only God can judge us / Forget the haters cause / somebody loves ya.” While the album has a strong and promising start, the songs that follow take the listener on a rhythmic roller coaster including some questionable lyrics.
“SMS (Bangerz),” her third song on the track which features Brittany Spears, sounded overly mixed with too many different sounds making it hardly listenable and very forgettable. Cyrus’s song “4×4” plays tribute to her country roots but also mixes in Nelly rapping on the track adding an interesting twist to this disparate song. While the song may have a catchy beat, this track has the strangest lyric choice on the entire album: “Driving so fast ‘bout to piss myself.”
Her album takes a refreshing upswing to her hit song “Wrecking Ball.” In this synth-pop song, Cyrus sings about the pains of falling in love and tells her loved one, “All you ever did was wreck / Yeah, you wrecked me.” This emotion-filled song gives a good representation of the artist’s vocal range. While the song may have a dramatic impact on listeners, it did not receive nearly as much attention as the song’s music video. In the video Cyrus is seen swinging stark naked on a wrecking ball and seductively licking sledge hammers. This music video is nothing like the sweet video we all remember of teen Cyrus singing “When I Look at You.”
After listening to her album it is clear to see that one of the main themes in Cyrus’s songs is break-ups. While Cyrus is raw with her emotions, she seems to take more of a feisty tone.
“I got two letters for you / One of them is F / And the other one is U / ‘Cause what you gotta do / Is go get yourself a clue,” Cyrus sings in the chorus of her song “FU” which is about heartbreak.
In Cyrus’s song “Drive,” which she recorded on Valentine’s day, she reveals a lot about how she has felt in past relationships. This artist continues to maintain a sense of realism on her album with her honest lyrics.
“I wrote [‘Drive’] while I was working on Valentine’s Day,” Cyrus said in an interview with Fashion Magazine. “Emotionally it was such a hard time. It is about needing to leave someone but not really wanting to completely cut yourself off from the relationship. It’s a time when you want to leave but you can’t. It’s also about moving on.”
“Bangerz” is full of raw materials and catchy beats. While some of the lyrics may be strange or unique, listeners seem to be loving Cyrus’s music because her songs are climbing on the iTunes charts. Cyrus tries to remain true to herself and honest on her new record, not caring what anyone around her thinks.
“But I’m just one of those artist who is just really honest as a person so my music has to be the same way and I think fans really like that,” she said in an interview with Showbiz411.com.
The album has an exclusive sound quality because not only is it pop, but it has elements of country, techno and rap offering a little something to every kind of music lover. With the different artist collaborations and variety of genres on this record, fans will be truly surprised with Cyrus’s record “Bangerz.”