Once a controversial pop singer, Miley Cyrus has returned to her roots, with a new single “Malibu” and has fans asking has she cleaned up a little too much. The winds are changing for the Cyrus family. In the blink of an eye, young Noah has gone from a mini–Hannah Montana to singing questionably precocious one-night-stand anthems, dad Billy Ray announced he is changing his name to just ‘Cyrus, and in a Billboard story last week Miley revealed her forthcoming album eliminate the pop and hip hop influences of her last release “Bangerz”. Now the once pop songstress states with her new single she is going back to her country roots and reinventing herself as a twangy singer-songwriter, she declared, with only two different hair colors and not a speck of glitter in sight. So committed to her new identity, she exclaimed, “I haven’t smoked weed in three weeks.”
As she explained to Billboard this new, gentler music is a conscious attempt to be less confrontational. “I like talking to people that don’t agree with me, but I don’t think I can do that in an aggressive way,” she said. “I don’t think those people are going to listen to me when I’m sitting there in nipple pasties, you know?”. “Malibu” definitely won’t offend any of the people who shielded their children’s eyes during Miley’s last tour, and it also doesn’t have an eager-to-please-the-radio vibe to it either. Miley also went on to say that her new, less-polarizing identity is about “unifying” people; she boldly proclaimed to Billboard that wants to “glue this country back together.” My thoughts are this new single “Malibu” certainly won’t be the song to do it. It’s missing something. The pop momentum of the verses feels like the song is building toward something bigger, but never quite gets there, and its chorus is a far cry from the climatic build of “Wrecking Ball” or the catchy anthem hook of “We Can’t Stop.”
“Malibu” seems to be designed to convince us she’s grown out of shock value and into a more conscious version of the girl-next-door she once seemed. She will gear up to perform her new single on the Billboard Music Awards on May 21st, and if this single is anything to go by we obviously can expect a more softer album from Cyrus. There’s nothing about “Malibu” that really sparkles in an attempt to go back to her roots, Miley may have washed off a little too much glitter. I’m praying she still enlists the talented producers she worked with on her previous album, but judging by this song “Malibu” I highly doubt it.
*Image Source: idolator.com
