Endless Summer Vacation, a review

I just had to write about it.

We did it, Joe.

That’s right folks, we’re back to peak superstar Miley Cyrus apparently. Following the underrated but mostly brilliant ‘Plastic Hearts’ and a decade of declining cultural relevance, our favourite nasal pop princess is back with her first blockbuster release in a literal decade. Decked out in a black leotard, hanging against a clear blue sky, she’s just being Miley.

In that she’s releasing a somewhat underwhelming album.

There’s something comforting when an artist proves that certain truths about themselves will always be there. For some, it’s that their ability to craft lyrics and find beautiful melodies will always shine – even as the voice begins to fade. For others, it’s catchy hooks that hide a lack of substance. For more still, it’s a penchant for beautiful harmonies even as the words meld together into nothingness. For Cyrus, that truth is that her work often stands best in individual tracks.

It may be sacrilegious so say, but some people are just better off as singles artists. Not everyone is built to create statements across 10-20 songs, even as streaming incentivises these long, often bloated track lists. It doesn’t hurt for your legacy to be easily accessible and beloved hit singles, despite the Hot 100 all too often now being flooded by album bombs.

This is where we find Cyrus. Even if you include ‘Plastic Hearts’, she is an artist that clearly finds it increasingly difficult to capture a single sound across a record, let alone a theme or mood. Part of this comes with increasing agency. Some pop stars have grand visions of their discographies, but others experiment and reject cohesion. Once you hit a certain level of success, you’re given more rope to hang yourself. And from ‘Can’t Be Tamed’, to ‘Bangerz’, and especially ‘Younger Now’, to even the back half of ‘Plastic Hearts’, we see what constitutes a Miley Cyrus album become increasingly fragmented.

She is a sonic chameleon who has often struggled to fit into a comfortable pop lane and has suffered commercially for it. Thematically, these albums mostly feel like journals, but in a way that often says way less than they initially seemed to. Or at least, the contradictions of Miley Cyrus as a public figure are reflected in often messy bodies of work. But even on a sonic level, they strain towards some level of authenticity. In a previous article, I described it as her wearing other’s faces, and I will give her that this is the least I have felt that in a while. There’s clearly influences at play on ‘Endless Summer Vacation’, but this is an album that feel distinct within the current landscape, at least in terms of where she’s pulling from.

But she definitely is pulling from somewhere.

The 2020s have been, as the late 2010s were, awash in nostalgia. This isn’t new – the sounds of the early 2000s balanced the emerging dominance of maximalist teen pop and R’n’B with a distinctly 1970s approach to song writing and hooks. The 1980s may have had new wave and other emerging genres, but it also was incredibly heavy in doo wop. And right now, the nostalgia point is the late 1990s and early 2000s.

And Miley is choosing Madonna.

Mid-career Madonna is essentially two different lanes. The first is the Music/Confessions style dance-pop. That’s clearly where a Dua Lipa (or even a Beyonce) is looking to at least inspire their approach to music. It’s fun and irreverent without being shallow. But then…there’s 1998’s ‘Ray of Light’.

I recently got relentlessly bullied on twitter.com for stating that I am fairly cold towards Madonna’s folktronica stuff. To put it frankly, while I appreciate her experiments, I think that her voice –both artistically and in her throat– often suffers from the spacious production. It’s an interesting lane, but not one I’m drawn to. In a bit of a twist, ‘Endless Summer Vacation’ is an album that is clearly trying to emulate ‘Ray of Light’.

With ‘Endless Summer Vacation’, we get a split album, with the first half built around the AM and the second for the PM. In theory, this should have created two thematically linked but distinct experiences for the listener. In practice, there’s nothing that defines this split when listening to the album sequentially. It’s a lovely little ballad, but what about ‘Wonder Woman’ is meant to evoke something “slinky…kind of a grime but a glamour at the same time”?

Once you get past ‘Flowers’, this is an album that is very focused on creating intimacy within electronic music. Not in the vein of Robyn, but more someone like FKA Twigs. However, the sounds here don’t just suggest Madonna or a contemporary artist, but also the music of Everything…But The Girl, if I’m being honest. There’s something beautiful about the better instrumentals on this record. It isn’t dance music, but it’s beats that suggest movement.

At least, that’s roughly half of what’s on here.

The rest is midtempo pop and a mediocre ballad to close the album before the equally dull demo to ‘Flowers’ rushes in to make things even more dour. A hit and a first draft that are out of place in context of the record. It’s a strange choice to bookend with both versions of a song that does not fit sonically, and maybe even thematically.

This isn’t a bad thing, because what does fit in here is going to be contentious for a lot of people. As pop music slowly claws dominance back in the mainstream musical landscape, it’s already taking a shape that Miley very clearly isn’t interested in pursuing. Yes, there’s some dance pop inflections on something like ‘Violet Chemistry’, ‘River’, or even ‘Handstand’, but they’re not catchy. ‘Flowers’ offers the most obvious and stickiest hook, with any other attempts trailing far behind.

The album wants to be about growth and adulthood, and parts of it do suggest something a little more reflective, akin to the better tracks on ‘Younger Now’. The most obvious examples are, unfortunately, the dullest. Take ‘Island’, a song about solitude that makes it sound rather neutral – also vaguely like an Ace of Base song. Again, the more “reflective” moments are clearly meant to evoke the pathos that people fawn over ‘Ray of Light’ for, but it falters because there’s nothing particularly vital here. There’s no rage, no passion, no boil or even much of a simmer.

‘River’ being the next single makes sense in context of the album, but nothing on here feels especially radio friendly. Or rather, nothing stands out as an easy fit into any form of hit making today. You don’t necessarily need a TikTok trend or playlisting to make something climb the charts, but I’m just not sure there’s anything strong enough on its own. Which, because Cyrus’ career is mostly built on individual tracks, makes this album feel weak in context of her career.

But part of that is buoyed expectations. To be blunt, nothing in her discography has ever matched the consistent quality of ‘Plastic Hearts’, and likely never will. That was lightning in a bottle that came after an arduous and somewhat pathetic attempt to pull together a series of EPs into a single album – a stunt that never works.

People are going to dislike this album. For good reason – it isn’t as well-crafted as it could be. But for all the execution falters, the end result still hosts some great tracks from a woman with a talent for individually perfect songs. ‘Handstand’ is a standout for me, as is the Brandi Carlisle duet ‘Thousand Miles’.

But for every interesting and great track, there’s something that feels like a leftover from the Cyrus of the late 2010s. ‘Jaded’ very well could be a ‘Plastic Hearts’ demo shoved onto the tracklist (cut for a reason, but not terrible), and ‘Muddy Feet’ with Sia feels like a strange and unfinished addition from ‘She Is Miley Cyrus’ that probably should have been left on the cutting room floor. But even these small, failed experiments don’t really stand out as terrible – just disappointing.

Miley Cyrus is singular in our current pop landscape in how little she actually seems to care about hitmaking. ‘Flowers’ has dominated with minimal promotion in true, viral hit fashion (Beyoncé style!). It seems like pop success is just something that will either happen or not to her. With her latest outing, we’re getting something that, through sheer coincidence, has given her a second wind as a commercial titan. It may not be great, but something else will be.

Regardless of your opinion on the quality, it’s always nice to give someone their flowers - even if they can get them themselves.