Miley Cyrus - "Endless Summer Vacation"

Possibly the biggest pop flop of 2023

With the lead single for this album, “Flowers”, I was actually expecting Miley to possibly drop an album that might contend with her little sister’s debut album (Noah’s 2022 effort, “The Hardest Part”, rated a Purple and ended the year in 9th on my Top 40 list). In the end, though, only 2-3 other tracks on the album can contend with “Flowers”. Most of the rest are good, but not mind-blowing. And “Endless Summer Vacation” doesn’t seem to have any real theme or through-line to raise it further (Miley has said it’s meant to reflect her growth while in LA/the city of LA itself? I don’t see it). So it feels like only a few songs have really gotten good polish on them.

Also, the second single apparently dropped today…”River”? The song that includes the line “You could be the one, have the honor of my babies”? I mean, that’s kinda cringe, but okay. The song sounds good, but the metaphor is awkward. And it has that line.

“Jaded”, “Thousand Miles”, and “Wildcard” are all much better picks.

And THEN, there’s the curveball that is “Handstand”. Like…wut??

Honestly, I’m still disappointed Miley is still doing pop. Hearing her do hard rock/metal in Black Mirror and the Metallica Blacklist has convinced me that that’s where she needs to be.

The album just doesn’t live up to the hype that “Flowers” built, and it’s an eclectic wreck.

Rating: Yellow