Album Review: Miley Cyrus – Plastic Hearts  (RCA)

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This album is a showcase and tour-de-force for Miley Cyrus and her magnificent voice. A major artist prodigy at a young age. Negotiating the myriads pitfalls and Faustian traps that privileged position can bring.  

Miley the Famous Media Celebrity and Miley the Artist cannot help but be inextricably intertwined. One informs the other so hello Madonna, hello Lady Gaga, hello Taylor Swift.

Vocal cord surgery in 2019. This is the first album since. Accentuates the rasp and timbre of her voice to even more stunning effect. Marianne Faithfull without the cigarettes and whiskey. The range and emotion of Janis Joplin well within her grasp.

The Rock Chick persona she can inhabit with ease on songs which can plod a bit with leaden boots.

Plastic Hearts and Keep me up all night/ I wanna feel something/ I feel nothing. Bongos’ and handclaps. The deeper register is jaded and dislocated. The higher voice is energised. Nicely balanced with production which doesn’t overload.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts feature on Bad Karma. Sexy breathy grunts. The two singers blend well in unison. A big mentor and model for current Miley.

Midnight Sky sounds like late-night Club dance music. A great Pop song with a little of Stevie Nick’s Edge of Seventeen breakout song providing the hook.

Prisoner with Dua Lipa. Womack and Womack style strident latter-day Soul. Loose Funk groove of Los Angeles era Motown. Like the way her voice breaks on I can’t control it.

There are two hearts present on this album and the Country songs may just be the best.

High and the voice is broken and tender and hurting. But the whiskey and fags are summoning all the pain and rising above with dignity. A superb performance which puts her in Joplin County. Sometimes I get a little hurt/ Sometimes I don’t miss you but I still feel you. 

And on the next Hate Me she continues with the sentiments but the Singer is more at peace. Great drum accents and the bass guitar leads on the second verse.

Never Be Me is a highlight. Country Americana with a Stevie Nicks inspired vocal and Springsteen in the lyric’s expansiveness and resignation. Which is a recurrent theme in the Roots Americana that Boss possibly make his own.

I walk the line/ I play with fire/ If you’re looking for faithful/ That will never be me/ I hope I’m able to be all that you need. The singer is in the depths of pain but this is an emotionally uplifting song. Country Soul and the ghost of George Jones is hovering as well.

Golden G String may even be better and a minor American Epic. A Brett Easton Ellis novel in scope. I did it to make you love me/ And to feel alive/ This is the world we live in/ The young boys hold all the cards. There is a profound sadness here with a background of horror. 1969 is invoked and in the darkness lurk Woodstock, Manson, Altamont and bad acid. The music shines like a small jewel amidst all this. There are Gospel tones. There is a light that shines.

Edge of Midnight has Stevie Nicks and is Pop heading into Soul. Miley unleashes her easy way she can go over the top in power and emotion but with great taste and judiciousness.

She does the same to Blondie’s Heart of Glass. Music is faithful to the original Disco Pop.

This is American Music. No escaping that. There are Rockers and lots of attitude. And there are depths of pain and sadness but matched with deep inspirational power. Somewhere in there is the pathway forward.

Rev Orange Peel

Rev Orange Peel
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