Giving Miley Cyrus her Flowers

Yes, she’s been flopping for a while.

I feel as if we don’t have it in us to admit when talented people are doing poorly. Sometimes in a personal sense, but oftentimes, to admit an artistic risk has led to disappointment is the same as saying it shouldn’t have been taken. And when looking at the Miley Cyrus experience from 2013-2023, we have a series of risks that have pointedly not paid off.

But with the release of Flowers, there’s finally some success.

To reflect on the past decade of Miley Cyrus pop stardom is to see one of the biggest names in music fail repeatedly. Following the mammoth success of the half-good/half-offensive ‘Bangerz’ (2013), we got experimental, we tried country, we went rock, and in all avenues, the ROI was minimal. The music refused to climb the charts.

There’s a million reasons to be laid at her feet for this chart aversion that Cyrus seemed to have caught following the unavoidable nature of songs like ‘We Can’t Stop’ and ‘Wrecking Ball’. Cultural fatigue is an easy explanation. Near a decade of major fame made the very young star a pop veteran. It’s an easy excuse. But that fatigue has had a decade to fade away. It just…didn’t.

The trouble is, Miley is often just too off base for where pop is. And when she tries to be, it feels weird.

Sometimes, that’s a good thing. ‘Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz’ is a fascinating piece of musical experimentation that was never going to chart well, or at all. It’s the next step from the weirder cuts in ‘Bangerz’, and her insistence on the aesthetic of “2011 Kesha but even trashier” was never going to connect with the types of people who buy albums. But that was a gimme. A record just for her.

Which is why the following few years are a strange case study.

In many ways, ‘Flowers’ feels like it is the first safe bet Miley Cyrus has had in a while, but that excuses the banality of something like ‘Younger Now’. The lead single ‘Malibu’ debuted in the top 10 on her dwindling cultural capital, but the album as a whole was a commercial failure, despite heavy pandering to a public that saw her as a bit of a farce. Its toothless country made by a woman who has Nashville in her veins.

In retrospect, that album was an attempt to redefine the Miley Cyrus experience from “twerking white girl on drugs” to something more appealing and, to be explicit, culturally “white American”. It’s a false front, a series of PR stunts that included the infamous statements about rap music and a world of pastels that she pasted over the neons of the past few records. That artificial sweetener didn’t sit well in anyone’s stomachs, and obviously the marriage attached didn’t either.

Very little about the project worked and, in its wake, she attempted to adapt.

Then came the abortive ‘She is…” series of EPs that only had 1/3 arrive. It’s bad. If ‘Young Now’ was bland, ‘She Is Coming” is desperate and flailing. We get a little tropical, some trap, some more standard pop. The lead single and minor hit ‘Mother’s Daughter’ is a flagrant attempt to produce the kind of uplifting and personality-filled pop that Lizzo is most known for. Like many of the faces she has put on in her lifetime, it’s unbelievable and somehow amateurish for a woman with more than half her life spent as an actress and performer.

This may sound like I don’t care for Miley Cyrus as a pop star, but I really do. The bright spots in her 2010s discography are some of the best the decade has to offer. ‘Malibu’ is one of the greatest lead singles I’ve ever heard, ‘Unholy’ off of the EP is fantastic, and so much of Dead Petz fascinating. But as an artist, she is so often a failed chameleon. I’ve already compared her to Lizzo, but the faces she skinned and worn through the past decade were simply…not her. Rihanna on ‘We Can’t Stop’, Kasey Musgraves on ‘Younger Now’, P!NK on ‘Don’t Call Me Angel’. Where her own voice and style peaked through, like on ‘Slide Away’ (her best single to date), it was startling.

This play act continued through the 2020s with ‘Plastic Hearts’, an electric pop rock album that had her play everyone from Stevie Nicks to Pat Benatar. It’s her best to date, with a clear style that she can not only stick to, but flourish under. But this divorce record is about as authentic to Cyrus as ‘Bangerz’ was. Yes, she sounds great. I believe the emotions behind the music. But aesthetically, while the neon lights and glitter glam feel more comfortable than the pigtails, rhinestones, and a-line skirts of ‘Younger Now’, it’s still an act.

‘Flowers’ is too, but it’s getting closer.

Debuting at the top of the charts is something that only happens for heavy hitters, and for Cyrus, it hasn’t felt like it was on the table for many, many years. To put this into perspective, her only top 10 hit since ‘Malibu’ was a brief appearance on a song with The Kid Laroi. Jumping on an already established hit barely counts. If you remove those two songs from the mix, she’s only hit the top twenty twice in 10 years. Counting her out in 2023 wouldn’t have just made sense, it would have been factually accurate.

I’m still not convinced this is Miley Cyrus at her most pure and authentic self. It feels too safe, too normal, too reflective of the times. The sample heavy instrumental and pandering to tabloid drama is too perfect. But unlike many of the other faces she’s worn recently, this fits better.

The Lana Del Rey-ification of pop is present here, and so is the Dua Lipa influence that is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. But there’s also some reality at play. For those who’ve been watching, it’s interesting to see that THIS is what people wanted from her all along. Pop that feels like pop. Blonde hair and sunglasses. Cool without trying so hard.

I still think it feels a little hollow, but I’m always excited to see what she’s working towards.