Miley Cyrus’ much-anticipated album “Bangerz” dropped Tuesday and it is as crazy and wild as audiences were anticipating.
Putting her VMA performance and strange music videos aside, it’s time to talk about the actual music, if any, Cyrus is capable of making.
The opening track, titled “Adore You,” is one of the few slow-paced songs on the album. The song showcases Cyrus’ voice with very little instrumentals, but it’s extremely repetitive. That point aside, it’s a pretty heartfelt song and although it is slow, it makes for a decent opener.
The second track is “We Can’t Stop” and considering how overplayed it has been for the past several months, there’s not much more to say. It’s a solid pop song about Cyrus, her friends and their partying ways.
The third song, the first explicit song on the album, features Britney Spears and is pretty awful. The essence of the song is Cyrus bragging about “struttin’ my stuff,” while she croons “bangerz, bangerz,” in the background, making for a truly arrogant and annoying song.
However, no song beats “4×4 (feat. Nelly)” as far are ridiculousness, which is one of the worst tracks on the album. All of a sudden, audiences are thrown a curve ball with this country-esque song. The beginning sounds like the opening of “Hoedown Throwdown” from “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” Hopefully, that was unintentional.
The party anthems continue with “Love Money Party (feat. Big Sean),” and “Do My Thang.” These two songs will no doubt show up in clubs across the globe. Given that, they really don’t have much else going for them.
Probably the two best songs are “Wrecking Ball” and “Maybe You’re Right,” proving that what Cyrus does best are heartfelt songs, letting her vocals shine. Both are extremely engaging and will probably be the ones listeners tend to put on repeat.
“#GETITRIGHT” is catchy and the whistling in the back gives it a “cutesy” vibe despite the erotic message of the song.
“Drive” and “Someone Else” bring the emotion back and clearly describe heartbreak that many listeners will surely be able to relate to. “FU (feat. French Montana),” a more rock n’ roll mixed with soul track, is exactly what the title implies with the lyrics of the chorus stating: “I got two letters for you/ One of them is F and the other is U.” The problem with this song isn’t necessarily Cyrus herself, but rather with French Montana. It would have been much more enjoyable without his feature. The same can be said for “My Darlin’ (feat. Future).”
The most bothersome aspect of the album is while there are several genuinely good pop songs, the others are impossible to listen to the whole way through. There seems to be an entire disconnect between songs. Some fans might enjoy the sporadic nature of the tracks, but it proves to be extremely distracting. It’s hard to decipher what exactly her angle is. Is she just an emotional almost-21-year-old suffering from heartbreak? Or a hard-core partier who doesn’t care about anything, especially what people think of her?
Maybe she shouldn’t have to choose. After all, this seems to be the first time she’s actually had creative freedom from “Hannah Montana.”
The point is that Cyrus does have talent and when she isn’t being completely ridiculous, she can create a good pop tune. She built an empire out of “Hannah Montana,” whether she wanted to or not.
The fan base for her is there. Now she needs to focus on more cohesive songs that complete the album, instead of dividing it in half.
Overall, the album is 50/50; half meaningful, catchy, songs and the other half total chaos. Good thing iTunes lets you pick and choose what songs you can buy.
SAMMIE JANIK
