Reinvention has been a motif for Miley Cyrus as an entertainer, whether you know her as the progeny of a country star that established herself as one of Disney’s most revered child-stars or the provocateur leading the ‘stick-your-tongue-out and twerk’ mania that characterized her 2013 album “Bangerz” , or for some reason identified with the peculiarity of 2015’s “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” her bohemianism kept a captive audience guessing what bold statement she’d make with her art. The years that followed would see Miley drop a few projects on a bi-annual release cadence but would represent a lull in her career as she floundered through the awkward years of self-discovery until a triumphant return with 2020’s “Plastic Hearts“. Endless Summer Vacation was shroud in mystery with only a teaser in December of 2022 hinting at new music but it wasn’t until January 5th that the album title and art evocative of artwork from Madonna’s 1992 coffee table book ‘Sex‘ (perhaps magniloquently saying she’s Madonna’s successor).
Thematically, Endless Summer is a high concept about love in all its forms, interspersed over its 13 tracks are playful, vibrant and often bold (borderline reckless) expressions of the musings of an enamored lover with the confluence broken only by the aromantic pre-order single “Flowers” serving as the album’s opener and demo version closing out the album.
Flowers (Official Music Video)
The two versions are as different as night and day, a duality that permeates the entire project with the first half marked by a scintillating, corybantic, more or less innocuous tone and the second half being more mature and explicit with undertones of eroticism. These distinctions are made apparent by the nuances of E.S.V’s aural production. Totally on brand for Miley, its production culminates into a sound that’s brazen among contemporary pop while displaying an impressive range that gives a broad strokes compendium of the genre in easily digestible morsels.
Totally on brand for Miley, its production culminates into a sound that’s brazen among contemporary pop while displaying an impressive range that gives a broad strokes compendium of the genre in easily digestible morsels.
Tracks like ‘Jaded’, ‘Rose Colored Lenses’ and ‘You’ postures softer melodies, the album’s middle on the other hand presents most of the LP’s experimental nature with stand outs such as ‘A Thousand Miles’ a song with southern sensibilities embellished with pop flourishes (its an atypical country/pop crossover), ‘Handstand‘ – a trippy synth-pop record with an abstract monologue and hyper-sexual hook (that could be mistaken for an old CHVRCHES song), ‘Muddy Feet‘ a hip-hop influenced banger redolent of Bangerz, ‘River‘ is the sort of 80’s Madonna-esque electro-pop song and ‘Island‘ which to me sounds like a modern rendition of another Madonna classic ‘La Isla Bonita‘ that I guess completes the ode.
River (Official Music Video)
The final minutes deescalates the frenetic pacing of the rest of the album with acoustic ballads ‘Wonder Woman‘ and the aforementioned ‘Flowers‘ demo version. Overall this is a summer playlist with an endless replay value (bad pun but true) and I can honestly say this is her magnum opus purely because of the music’s quality without the ostentation of trying to play up controversy.
