She Is Coming EP - Miley Cyrus: Review

Miley Cyrus

is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus who has made a name for herself originally as a Disney child star with alter ego Hannah Montana. Though Miley released some music through this period her true solo career began in 2010 with Can't Be Tamed and since then has been a series of edgy releases that have been met with shrugs from critics and drawn controversy from many sources. But with such powerful name recognition Miley has been one of the most effective sellers of this decade and with the release of this new EP she starts off a new era that is rumored to have two more EPs following it. 

Review By Lavender:

Miley has always been one of my favorite personalities in pop, when I was younger I loved her edgy and youthful sense of rebellion especially after cringing at her child years. As I grew older Miley did the same and became increasingly mature without losing her sharp touch with younger audiences. So as much as I praise her social presence, her music hasn't received near the same attention. Can't Be Tamed came out before I started reviewing albums but I'm sure we can all imagine some of the creative insults panned at the insultingly underwritten songs and polished instrumentals. She followed this up with her most tolerable album to date 2013's Bangerz a mostly witless series of punchy pop tunes that sometimes eclipsed mediocrity to put out a handful of decent tracks. Surprisingly I am not nearly as negative on the albums follow-up as many are. 2015's Miley Cyrus And Her Dead Petz is one of the most commonly maligned projects of this entire decade and saw the meeting of minds of Miley's pop sensibility, production credit from Mike Will Made It and instrumentals courtesy of The Flaming Lips. Despite being far too long then it needed to be I saw more potential in what they were doing than most and despite some of the albums deep flaws I found myself in defense of a few of its songs that I felt deserved more credit. Two years later Miley released her next project Younger Now and despite the single Malibu that I actually enjoyed the album was far too boring for its own good and its trite blend of country and pop fell far short of refreshing. So I went into She Is Coming with pretty low expectations, and wow it still somehow let me down. 

This may be the worst thing Miley has put out since Tamed or maybe even since the Hannah Montana era. While there is really only one song here I consider acceptable we should go ahead and get some of the worst offenders out of the way, starting with Cattitude featuring RuPaul. I don't even know where to start, I do actually like the sentiment of the song and I am always down for a boss bitch tune but this is one of the worst things I've heard all year. RuPaul and Miley have a competition to see who can croon out the most vile lyrics expressing blatant and raunchy sexuality without a lick of self-awareness or tact. Don't really even get me started on the lyrics if you haven't heard the song yourself go check out the lyrics on Genius and I promise you won't even believe it. The instrumental here is an awful and seemingly random clashing of horns and drums that sounds like a marching band stuck in a whirlpool. Somehow the songs lowpoint isn't even anything I've mentioned so far as Miley takes to imitating the drum line with her own voice and every "Rumpumpumpum" that comes out of her mouth makes my headache just a little bit stronger. I don't do a worst singles or worst songs list at the end of the year anymore but if I still did I guarantee you this track would make the cut.

Unholy is a whole different kind of horrible as the track is a smoky pop ballad with zero personality and lyrics that try to outdo Cattitude with sheer corniness. Nothing here sounds genuine or interesting at all and the chorus is one of the most awful and shrill things you'll hear in pop this year. D.R.E.A.M continues this awful vibe into the next song yet another dark and swelling pop tune. Miley thought for some reason to borrow from Wu-Tang Clan's C.R.E.A.M for the songs refrain "Drugs Rule Everything Around Me" and as awful as the two minutes and change of the track is there is actually a Ghostface Killah feature that is tacked onto the last 20 seconds that is genuinely one of the only enjoyable moments here.

The next two tracks I'll touch on aren't terrible but they do nothing to stand out or be interesting in any way. Mother's Daughter opens the EP off with some vapid, wandering and completely meaningless lyrics to set the tone. The chorus flirts with being interesting but ends up falling completely flat and Miley's vocals are just so inconsistent. The instrumental is a bearable pop and trap crossover that never really lands and this songs placement here just makes no sense to me. Party Up The Street features production from good old Mike Will Made It and features Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd fame as a guest singer. The song itself is a little bit boring but ultimately fine and it is refreshing to hear somebody other then Miley singing but the lack of chemistry between these two is outright hilarious and I have no idea how anybody in the recording studio or on Miley's label could possibly hear this and think it is an acceptable finished product. The two sound so awkwardly smashed together and the clunky refrain doesn't help as they try to out croon each other in a song that feels twice to three times longer than its original runtime as a result.

Finally the one true song on here that I actually liked is the sincere closing ballad The Most. Miley finally uses her voice to the best and fullest extent here and it is a rewarding sensation with far better vocals and songwriting than anywhere else on the EP. The track does touch on a little bit boring territory in its second half but given how many improvements there are all over this song from the rest of the EP I am more than happy with it.

Don't let the fact that the review ended off positively fool you, I hated every listen through I did of this awful thing and it isn't even that long of a project. Not only does Miley fail to establish any kind of unique style or artistic consistency on this thing but most of the time she fails to put together any of the elements of a decent song. Once or twice diving into the realm of straight up terrible music and decision making on the part of everyone behind the scenes that approved this thing before its release. If not for the $uicideboy$ EP that came out just a week before this thing I could confidently say that it was a runaway for the worst EP I've heard all year but I can positively say that it is comfortably within the five worst things I've heard all year period and really gives Avril Levigne a run for her money in the terrible pop music department for 2019. 1.5/10

Best Track: The Most

For more pop check out my review of Ariana Grade's thank u, next here.