The Beach Boys and Girls evocative title ENDLESS SUMMER VACATION is at first as misleading as that of scandal director Harmony Korine’s abysmal 2012 film Spring Breakers, who appropriately co-wrote the track “Handstand” on Miley Cyrus’ new album. Cyrus’ eighth record is a love letter to LA — the city where she moved with her family as a young teenager in 2005 to play the title role on teen sitcom Hannah Montana. In the Sunshine State of California, she is now recovering from the failure of her first marriage to actor Liam Hemsworth – and as is well known, such a project can drag. If not endlessly, then at least for the 40 minutes of their album, which is divided into an “AM” and a “PM” side.
You don’t have to prick up your ears to interpret the work primarily as a settlement with her ex: “You smell like perfume that I didn’t purchase / Now I know why you’ve been closing the curtains / Get the fuck out of my house,” she sings in “Muddy Feet,” for example, which is wonderful for stomping on with those same feet (like in a playground of self-love, Cyrus swings on her wrecking ball and Sia on her chandelier to each other). As I said: You don’t have to be particularly careful when entering, but of course you’re allowed to. And legions of Miley maniacs do it happily.
Wildest fan theories and questions fill the internet: Is the mansion where the clip for record-breaking lead single “Flowers,” released in time for Hemsworth’s birthday, really where Hemsworth is said to have directed his alleged 14 affairs? Is the chorus of the disco piece, which is otherwise based on Gloria Gaynor’s self-determination anthem “I Will Survive” in terms of content and melody, deliberately copied from Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” because the ballad was played at Cyrus’ wedding party? Ingenious revenge moves or coincidences and nonsense? It doesn’t matter, good mainstream pop is distinguished when it moves this mainstream.
And he does that musically in addition to all the meta levels: After just one listen, the track list seems like a class reunion full of familiar names. ENDLESS SUMMER VACATION is timeless pop, pleasantly stripped of auto-tune and the usual trap hats as it might have appeared 25 years ago. Apart from the weird break in “Handstand” nothing here reminds of the avant-garde experiments with the Flaming Lips. Gentle reggaeton beats on “Island”, a touch of country on “Thousand Miles”, that’s it for genre hopping. James Blake’s synths don’t steer the great “Violet Chemistry” off the middle path either, which should please get it up into the charts, which then will probably still be ruled by “Flowers”.
Miley Cyrus has succeeded, in the best sense, with a completely normal pop album. Maybe that’s where she wanted to go after all the commotion and all the deliberately chosen offside places. She seems to like it there. In any case, we do.
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