Miley Cyrus — Endless Summer Vacation — Album Review
Pop | Rock
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Mily Cyrus is one of those artists that, honestly, needs very little introduction at this point. That being said, however, it took longer than most for me to truly get into her music.
That time finally came along with the release of her seventh studio album Plastic Hearts, released in 2020. It was certainly the Miley Cyrus album that finally won me over, due to how gritty, atmospheric, and strong of concept the album was, along with just being downright catchy.
That being said, I was excited to find out if this kind of aesthetic would persevere in subsequent Miley projects. The time to find out came along recently, with the release of Miley’s brand new studio album, and the eight in her discography, titled Endless Summer Vacation.
I would admit, the teaser track for this album, named “Flowers” did leave quite a lot to be desired. Where the best tracks on Plastic hearts were rife with luminous vibrance, “Flowers” felt suffocatingly shallow by comparison, not to mention repetitive. However, I would give the album as a whole the benefit of the doubt going into it, and hoped that the sound of “Flowers” would not speak for the entirety of Endless Summer Vacation.
The full album can best be described as a bit of a mixed bag, unfortunately with the bad outweighing the good ever so slightly. But with all of the aspects of this album that I didn’t enjoy, I personally don’t feel like this was Miley’s fault completely; let me explain.
Where Plastic Hearts delved away from Miley living up to the expectations of the fans of her Hannah Montana roots, and her peers, and instead giving us something completely different, Endless Summer Vacation seemingly leans in the opposite direction. And while there is still a select handful of tracks that gave us that Plastic Hearts feel on here, they are mixed in with other tunes which feel shallow at best.
As always, Miley’s vocals are brilliant, and arguably stand as one of the best elements of this album. But by pairing even that with unimaginative and uninspired songwriting, and regularly shallow production, there’s not much that could be helped.
The whole thing just feels very commercial at its core, and doesn’t give Miley much chance at all to show new listeners who she truly is, or what she is capable of musically. It was easy for me to have a strong hunch that too many conflicting opinions from other people working on the creation of this album ultimately ruined the experience. In other words, there were “too many cooks”.
Nevertheless, there were still a couple of shining moments on this record, but it stands as a shame that there simply weren’t more of them. I reckon that if Miley Cyrus had more control of this project (which I might even have completely twisted; this decision could have been entirely Miley’s), it could’ve been an album that matched the brilliance of its predecessor.
Favourite Tracks: Jaded | River | Wildcard
Least Favourite Tracks: Flowers | Muddy Feet
Smiley Miley Inc. | Columbia Records | Sony Music Entertainment
