Miley Cyrus’s new album Bass Persuades has been awarded two stars in a review that describes her move into club music as ambitious but largely unsuccessful.
The singer, who has dropped her surname for the project, works with Cole Haden of Model/Actriz, bringing distortion and a more provocative edge to tracks including Different Religion, Orbit and Innocent Ways.
However, reviewer Robert Moran argues that the album’s experiments rarely come together. He describes the title track as an attempt to shake listeners out of apathy, but says its melody and lyrics are more likely to cause confusion than inspire movement.
The song includes the line: “Ghosts went to Bermuda ’cause there’s no one to haunt.”
Moran is especially critical of Neon Signs, a collaboration with Andrew Wyatt that draws on Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus. He calls it “simply grotesque” and writes that it “might actually be the worst song ever”.
The review presents Cyrus as a pop star committed to following an unconventional artistic path, even when the results are uneven. It notes that she has previously worked with figures including Wayne Coyne, Ariel Pink and Harmony Korine, while arguing that her records have not always matched the strangeness suggested by those collaborations.
Despite its reservations, the assessment concludes that Cyrus’s determination to pursue her own direction is worth recognising. Moran suggests that, eventually, her unconventional approach may produce something more successful.
