Miley Cyrus’ new album, Limitless Summer season Trip, is many issues: a self-described love letter to town of Los Angeles, a full day in two distinct halves (the monitor checklist is split into “AM” and “PM” songs), a recent begin on the brand new label residence of Columbia Data, and a industrial comeback thanks to steer single “Flowers” turning into Cyrus’ first Scorching 100 chart-topper in almost a decade.
Above all, nonetheless, Limitless Summer season Trip is an apotheosis. After spending the last decade following her Disney Channel rise by making an attempt on totally different kinds of common music, from hip-hop to country-pop to guitar-rock, Cyrus positions her newest full-length as a fruits of her experiences and strengths, with a wide range of sonic approaches folded into the combination. Cyrus, one of many extra gifted pop artists of her technology, is aware of precisely who she is, and Limitless Summer season Trip reckons with each the place she’s been and the place she is likely to be headed subsequent.
“Flowers” previewed the ‘70s haze of the album’s overarching pop-rock method, however Limitless Summer season Trip additionally consists of nods to the psychedelica of the Lifeless Petz period, the sturdy rock of Plastic Hearts and the lure beats of Bangerz, as Cyrus revisits relationships that didn’t work out, peaceable blips that ought to have lasted longer, and private truths which have led her to this second as a completely confident 30-year-old. The themes are offered confidently, and the visitor checklist is proscribed; Brandi Carlile and Sia seem on “Thousand Miles” and “Muddy Toes,” respectively, however their voices are principally used to buttress Cyrus’ personal, which has all the time been a exceptional instrument however has developed even larger nuance. She sings with function all through the album, imbuing traces that might be delivered in any customary pop monitor with sufficient character to persuade the listener that, no, solely Miley may sing this.
That’s all the time been Cyrus’ calling card — there’s nobody else in pop music fairly like her. And with Limitless Summer season Trip, an irreplaceable expertise pulls collectively all the concepts she’s beforehand explored right into a single, grand assertion.
So which songs are the early standouts? Though all of Cyrus’ new album is price exploring, here’s a preliminary rating of each track on Limitless Summer season Trip.
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“Flowers (Demo)”
The worth in each variations of “Flowers” — the chart-topping unique, and the stripped-down demo model — showing on the Limitless Summer season Trip monitor checklist lies in how the track’s message contorts: the hit model of “Flowers” conveys pop energy by means of self-care, however when accompanied by solely a synthesizer right here, Cyrus appears like she’s making an attempt to persuade herself that nobody can love her higher than she will. Even when the demo take isn’t essential, its fragility supplies a stark, fascinating distinction.
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“Muddy Toes” feat. Sia
Cyrus usually sounds nice whereas unfurling her rage within the vocal sales space, and the spotlight of “Muddy Toes” is that unbridled anger, along with her growls and hoarse declarations directed towards the individual continuously dragging grime into her tidy life earlier than a swelling outro that includes some alternative Sia melismas. With its quick working time and repeated phrases, “Muddy Toes” comes throughout as barely incomplete in comparison with the remainder of the Limitless Summer season Trip tracks — however boy, is that this one going to rip when Cyrus performs it dwell.
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“Handstand”
The way you personally really feel about Miley Cyrus & Her Lifeless Petz will probably function your litmus take a look at for “Handstand,” a trippy synth fantasia that kicks off with a spoken-word psych-out that features the road “My good friend Massive Twitchy rode the boat to the sunshine,” earlier than digging right into a clipped, surprisingly catchy breakdown. Knowingly messy however fascinating in its weirdness, “Handstand” might be misplaced within the coronary heart of Limitless Summer season Trip or precisely at residence because the meltdown of the album’s Aspect A, relying in your imaginative and prescient of the monitor checklist; both manner, factors to Cyrus for by no means giving up her freak flag.
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“Wildcard”
Take into account “Wildcard” because the grown-up model of Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed”: all these years after rejecting the varied bins that trendy society and common tradition tried to put her in, she’s nonetheless by no means going to be outlined — on this case, as her id pertains to domesticity (“Perhaps I may keep and never break your coronary heart / However don’t overlook, child, I’m a wildcard,” she warns). “Wildcard” features as a late-album vocal showcase, the snares complementing Cyrus’ statements of self earlier than ceding the ground to showy synths on the high-powered hook.
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“Island”
On an album stuffed with compelling proclamations of who Cyrus is and what she desires, “Island” affords surprising softness: certain, there are pangs of lacking a big different, however when a stranded Cyrus sings, “Nobody right here wants nothin’ from me, and it’s type of good,” the listener can hear one of many extra prolific pop artists of the previous decade chill out somewhat bit. The track’s breezy tone proves beguiling — credit score to producer BJ Burton, who oversees a beautiful combine — and Cyrus sparkles as its star.
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“Rose Coloured Lenses”
Credit score to Cyrus for completely capturing the sensation of sprawling out and nestling into a cushty setting on “Rose Coloured Lenses” — “Let’s keep like this endlessly,” she breathes, as if hypnotizing her topic — because the manufacturing recollects the guitar-rock chug of her Plastic Hearts period earlier than touchdown on a saxophone solo. “Rose Coloured Lenses” incorporates the title Limitless Summer season Trip within the second verse, and it is sensible: Cyrus is capturing a heat second in time right here, and pleading for it to remain everlasting.
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“Thousand Miles” feat. Brandi Carlile
At first look, “Thousand Miles” resembles an easy nation track — the primary couplet consists of the phrase “beat-up outdated Mercedes,” natch — with Brandi Carlile corralled in to ship some craving harmonies about nagging regrets and too-late calls. But a more in-depth look reveals a shapeshifting sonic tapestry, with grand piano, harmonica, guitar and programmed drums pushing the track someplace between Americana and synth-pop; no matter its style classification, “Thousand Miles” recollects the twangy Cyrus masterclass “The Climb,” which is all the time factor.
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“Marvel Lady”
The facility of “Marvel Lady,” the tearjerking piano ballad that serves as the ultimate non-demo track on the Limitless Summer season Trip monitor checklist, lies in its universality: when Cyrus sings, “She’s 1,000,000 moments / Lived a thousand lives / By no means know she’s hopeless / Solely when she cries,” she might be talking as a pop star who’s needed to attraction the mainstream by means of a number of album eras, or as a lady being pressured to bear an excessive amount of in an imperfect society. “Marvel Lady” supplies connection to those that search it, and Cyrus sounds excellent because the piano notes roll on, drawing out every line and extracting which means from each second.
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“Jaded”
Instantly following “Flowers” on the Limitless Summer season Trip monitor checklist, “Jaded” once more displays on a breakup, however focuses on the affect it had on Cyrus’ ex as a substitute of herself: “You’re lonely now, and I hate it,” she sings, satisfied that breaking apart was obligatory however nonetheless swimming in lingering concern. As the one monitor right here produced by Greg Kurstin, “Jaded” leans on the echoes of bending guitar traces to specific melancholy, then balls up its resolve throughout a grand, affecting refrain.
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“River”
There’s a cause why “River” is being positioned as Cyrus’ potential follow-up smash to “Flowers”: the only handles its synth-pop thrives and sexual innuendoes with funk and character, its melodies blasting out like laser beams and Cyrus choosing sashaying monotone on the verses to offset the “ooh-ooh-OOH!” maximalism of the refrain. The inspiration of “River” recollects the shimmering pop-rock tone of “Flowers,” however the intricate manufacturing retains pushing the tempo, yielding a dance monitor that’s going to pop up at loads of events this summer season.
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“Flowers”
As “Flowers” has change into Cyrus’ longest-running hit atop the Scorching 100 in latest weeks, its attraction has solely deepened — as if the major-key refrain and tabloid rumors launched the only as an early 2023 smash, however then the luxurious particulars, from the strings to post-chorus shuffle, helped the track maintain its run at No. 1. Sure, Cyrus has had flashier hits, however not too many as full as this one, and the mix of stadium-sized melodies and polished subtleties makes “Flowers” sing.
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“Violet Chemistry”
“Violet Chemistry” boasts fairly the studio pedigree — Cyrus labored with Mike WiLL Made-It, Sia, James Blake, Jesse Shatkin, Maxx Morando and Max Taylor-Sheppard on the monitor — and that cacophony of concepts was in some way streamlined right into a smooth, singular wallop of a synth-pop track. Cyrus works wonders on the forget-about-tomorrow anthem, her voice commanding in some moments and pleading in others. The prolonged bridge, the place the manufacturing simplifies to give attention to the beats and bass as Cyrus turns intercourse right into a Monet simile, makes “Violet Chemistry” each the longest track on Limitless Summer season Trip and the most effective.
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“You”
One achievement that Plastic Hearts subtly unlocked for Cyrus: in case you seemed past the extra uptempo singles and towards searing tracks like “Excessive” and “Angels Like You,” she had clearly mastered her model of the pop ballad. One album later, “You” exists as a lovestruck waltz however abides by the identical tenets of these tracks, glowing with lyrical gems (“I wanna lower off my hair and kick off my boots / Dance within the wind simply to do it once more”) because it approaches its hook — an ode to embracing a flawed accomplice unconditionally — with tenacity and verve. Cyrus’ balladry bursts along with her character, which is why a track like “You” is so uniquely efficient.
