Miley Cyrus tends to zag when everyone else wants her to zig. Tracing her career reveals an arc prone to as many makeovers and character changes as appeared in her debut series, Hannah Montona.
So it comes as no surprise that Cyrus’ 10th studio album sheds her familiar excess to deliver a focused 37-minute dance-club fever dream.
Cyrus starts by bemoaning the lack of dance music, joining a curious trend from fellow popstars such as Harry Styles and Madonna. Bass Persuades leans heavily on Cyrus’ charisma and star power as the driving force behind songs that otherwise are destined to be forgotten and remixed on countless dance floors.
As we’ve noted previously, Cyrus has undergone several changes in her professional and personal life in recent years. Notably, she’s committed to sobriety, a topic that appears often on Bass Persuades. Yet, these notable changes do little to impact a slim volume fixated on squeezing every ounce of passion, sex and love out of her.
“Let’s Get Married” portrays a hasty wedding following love at first sight. The couple’s affection does lead to lasting commitment as Cyrus reflectively wonders, “What did I do to deserve you?”
She continues the sentiment on “Orbit,” celebrating how her partner grounds her and keeps her saying, “I’m drawn to you/I belong to you.”
On “REDLIGHTS” Cyrus shows her affection to her partner by saying, “Anywhere you go/I will also go.”
Bass Persuades loudly proclaims that “the kids don’t wanna dance” anymore. And the only way to fix that is to take them to the club, put “their bodies close together” and see where the night takes them.
Title track, “Bass Persuades” opens the album with a description of one of these late night parties, where the candy is “cut with fentanyl” and “chaos is king.”
Cyrus claims to have found her new god on “Different Religion.” She sings, “I got my own god/My god’s a hot boy.” She doubles down on her troubling view in saying, “I crave to believe him/We don’t need forgiveness.”
“Aftermath” details how to put the pieces back together following a breakup. Cyrus worryingly sings, “I miss the future like the face I forgot.” She dwells on a future she never had and turns threatening as she repeats, “Don’t avoid the question.”
Detailing a one-night stand turned into much more, “Neon Signs” contains an explicit reference to sex as Cyrus says she’s “putting lotion on/only thing on my skin.”
The album contains a repeated use of “b–ch,” as well as several references to getting high.
Atypical of most genre-bending stars of her ilk, Cyrus dropped news of Bass Persuades barely two weeks before its release.
Perhaps she knew something we didn’t.
Surprisingly, these 10 songs arrive and leave without dropping any major bombshell revelation about one of the most revealing artists of recent memory.
Even though Cyrus has little to say of any substance, that doesn’t stop her from fixating on her self-destructive tendencies in relationships. She can’t help but allow her desire for commitment to devolve into late nights marred by forgotten love and broken hearts.
By the last song, it’s still unclear what, exactly, Cyrus hopes her bass persuades listeners of. However, her muddled picture of a healthy relationship contains little worth emulating in our own.
Jackson Greer is a High School English Teacher in the suburbs of Texas. He lives in Coppell, Texas with his wife, Clara. They love debating whether or not to get another cat and reading poetry together. Also, he is a former employee of Focus on the Family’s Parenting Department.
