For the reason that double-life Disney sitcom Hannah Montana debuted in 2006, Miley Cyrus has performed with the thought of pop star as persona car. She’s had hits with purgative energy ballads and candy-coated odes to America; she’s made forays into synthpop, psychedelia, nation, and art-rock; and he or she’s performed with the general public’s concept of what somebody in her place owes the world. Cyrus’ eighth album Infinite Summer season Trip, which was teased by the coolly resilient assertion of independence “Flowers,” appears like a recap of her profession’s 15-plus years, with Cyrus breezing via genres with the convenience of a well-seasoned vacationer.
All through Infinite Summer season Trip, Cyrus exhibits off the malleability of her voice, a brawny, rough-edged, bellow that may curve right into a beguiling coo when the second requires. “Jaded” is a swirling breakup reduce that’s half “Wrecking Ball,” half “Déjà Vu,” with Cyrus’ rasp slicing via the haze of guitars on the regret-wracked refrain. “River” is thumping synth-pop with a hovering refrain that contrasts with the second verse, which is delivered in a deadpan monotone that makes its confessions of affection really feel extra incredulous. “Wildcard” is galloping country-rock, Cyrus opening up her voice extensive as she mulls over the battle between her unbridled spirit and her need for love. “Violet Chemistry,” one of many album’s sweetest items of ear sweet, is a slick closing-time come-on that remembers Timbaland’s mid-‘00s imperial section.
Cyrus’ listing of collaborators over time has been as diversified as it’s prolonged, and Infinite Summer season Trip continues that pattern. In case you had Brandi Carlile and Mike WiLL Made-It showing on the identical track in your 2023 musical bingo card, congratulations, because the psych-country-pop reduce “Thousand Miles” options contributions from each; it’s one of many album’s extra compelling tracks, with the restlessness in its lyrics matched by the clamor surrounding Cyrus’ and Carlile’s well-matched voices, and the hiccupping harmonica outro implying that the street down which Cyrus is driving her “beat-up outdated Mercedes” isn’t about to finish anytime quickly. Sia exhibits up on the vicious “Muddy Toes,” a spiteful rebuke to a straying associate; her vocals are for essentially the most half within the background, though the sing-song pre-chorus is a shiny neon signal pointing to her involvement. Cyrus summons her raspiest bellow for the refrain, which feels slapped in from one other track and heightens the sensation that this explicit monitor was extra pointed catharsis than a candidate for the pop charts. (Stranger issues have occurred, although, particularly within the TikTok age.) The woozy “Handstand,” a psych-pop-sex-jam-freakout that feels prefer it might spin off into its personal album, has writing and manufacturing credit that embrace provocateur Concord Korine; Cyrus’ voice bleeds into the maelstrom surrounding it as she brags about her physics-defying carnality.
Cyrus excels most when she’s using her voice to super-sell huge ballads, and Infinite Summer season Trip isn’t any exception. “You” is a bring-down-the-house expression of affection with a powerhouse vocal, and it’ll seemingly turn out to be a signature Cyrus monitor over time. “Marvel Lady,” in the meantime, tells the story of a girl whose power masks the arduous years that she’s already lived; Cyrus wrote it within the wake of her grandmother’s passing in 2020, however a few of the lyrics—”She’s 1,000,000 moments/ Lived a thousand lives/ By no means know she’s hopeless/ Solely when she cries”—really feel semi-autobiographical for Cyrus, who has lived rather a lot in her 30 years and who is usually at her greatest when she tasks resilience throughout the susceptible moments she places on report.
