Miley Cyrus is back with a brand new album – but is it worth a listen? Here Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews:
Spin.com: “Where her past albums felt messy but painfully sincere, Younger Now comes off as safe and overly sanitized, with the frisson that made Cyrus a star all but entirely blasted away.”
Slant Magazine: *** “If Younger Now is a clear retreat to the middle of the road, though, it also feels truer to Cyrus’s artistic strengths than her last two albums.”
NME: **** “Miley’s version of country music, however, retains the edge she’s spent the past five years cultivating.”
The Guardian: *** “Younger Now isn’t a failure exactly – just the sound of Cyrus, or her record company, panicking and hitting “reset”. And that cultural fear – that this theoretically Teflon-coated pop star would be in such haste to hand back her “hood pass” (well, her notional “hood pass”) – is the saddest thing about a record in which a young woman finds herself in love again.”
Consequence of Sound: “Cyrus came too far into her own during her years as a provocateur to go back to the Nashville-lite world that Younger Now offers.”
Variety: “Occasionally, Cyrus gets in touch with her commercial instincts — which, in her case, are her better ones.”
Vulture.com: “Younger Now plays at an overhaul it doesn’t fully commit to. It hedges its bets with a few too many filler tracks. Miley Cyrus has been nailing dramatic transformations since she was 13 years old. Now she’s too obsessed with being normal to stick the landing.”
Evening Standard: **** “a collection of beautiful, emotional country rock. ”
All Music.com: *** 1/2 ” If Younger Now seems slightly scattered as it flits from song to song, it nevertheless adds up to a portrait of a pop star so confident of her swagger, she doesn’t bother with such niceties as old-fashioned flow.”
The Times: ** “Younger Now isn’t terrible; it’s just not terribly interesting. Cyrus has written the songs, but you don’t feel she has a burning desire to share her thoughts with the world”
The FT: ** “Younger Now see-saws from 2015’s self-released psychedelic folly Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz with a series of less weird but equally dull songs.”
Younger Now is available to buy and download through Amazon now.