A Bias Review of Miley Cyrus's Plastic Hearts

12 years after her first self titled album Miley's come full circle in style and sound, the album is quickly shaping up to be one of her best projects.

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Through the years, as a fan of Miley and her many, many personas it's always an exciting time when she drops new music. Usually this entails a new look that might not necessarily fit with the current scene or deemed acceptable by the general public. However, as the industry has evolved to accept different and unique musicians such as Lizzo and Billie Eilish it seemed that Miley's usual antics wouldn't stand out against such a vibrant crowd.

So where does a "veteran" pop artist such as herself go when many deemed her time has maybe passed. Miley went for herself, her true self. Despite wearing many costumes over the years she's always infused a bit of rock and country twang to all her songs. She can't really escape that sound as it's what most characterise her voice. She wouldn't stop there though, and take inspiration of the music that she grew up listening to as well. A lil nine inch nail mixed in with some of Britney's top hits, layered with Stevie Nick's vocal runs and you get Plastic Hearts.

Some may see the album as a mismatch of different songs but to her fans such as myself it felt like a new introduction, one where all of her past lives were acknowledge and given the proper respect it deserved. Standing out has always been about being your true self and for Miley she's always been this amalgamation of genres. Although the album is marketed as a pop rock album, the only way to truly describe is as Miley's voice. Throughout the album you can easily match the song to previous projects. The opening for example, does a good callback to Miley's Hannah Montana days, the song "High" is reminisce of her Younger Now album and the title track "Plastic Hearts" could easily fit in Can't Be Tamed.

The album also does a good job in honouring the sounds that shaped Miley through collaborations with the originators. This may be a daunting task for most, not only to secure these legends for a song but to also be able to sing side by side with people who are revered in that specific genre. "Midnight Sky" is an ode to Stevie Nick's "Edge of Seventeen", "Nightcrawling" is a callback to Billy Idol in his prime 80's heydays and "Bad Karma" is a modern take on Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation".

What really ties all of these songs is Miley, her life story is represented not only through the lyrical content but also her vocal performance. She once said in an interview how she believes the traumatic events she faced throughout 2019 had changed her voice and reminded her of how far she has come since her debut. This new focus has given Miley a chance to start all over. Whether she'll stay in rock and see it's revival doesn't really matter, as for now she's found her own sound and it gave us a 10/10 album.