Miley returns with a shorter album after 2025s Something Beautiful just a few days after godmother Dolly Parton’s death. Bass Persuades has an indie electronic footprint but misses out on something which was clear as an album offering- bass.
As the first project, after years of having the Cyrus surname, Miley continues to bring her infectious energy Daughter of country music hall of famer Billy Ray Cyrus, she’s had her moments of fame on television and off. She’s a musician who was written off the map of relevance when she went “rogue” during the wrecking ball era that the internet remembers so well. Miley doesn’t mind, though. She knows how to keep all her personas at bay and use the one that the moment demands.
Life, after moving on
With her engagement to Liily drummer Maxx Morando, she is not just exploring dance numbers that are supposed to be pounding the speakers at every club. She shifts through the songs like blood through arteries and veins. There’ll be a sudden ballad just after a pop-punk song. The opening single is bass-persuaded and delivers itself as a high-voltage speaker tester. Paired with a thematic dance video, it shows Miley bold and confident, like in the late 2010s, and her signature vocals that are comfortable in the lower register and can switch to a shriek in seconds’ notice.
Different Religion comes in next with a post-punk aesthetic that Miley knows how to nail. Though these two tracks have similar blood, the effects make sure the difference is heard in the production and general quality of the sound. Performing with Model/Actriz is definitely strange, but not unlike the former Disney star to throw a stone in the blender. I think her particular choice in picking the duo who open Hollywood Bowl shows is a sign towards the kind of genre slab she wants to explore this year. As you very well know, it’s going to be something completely different than the next.
Wild switches, mild tunes
I don’t know how this factors into an album, but the next song called “Let’s Get Married” is a dreamy indie pop song. This is what you’d expect from Miley if she is writing a song about her and Maxx. However, the choice to break the upbeat rhythm of the electronic songs with such a soft, poetic, and emotional ballad has a chance to completely throw you off. It isn’t great in terms of how an album is packaged, where you expect a cohesive story to be running through the theme of it. The song in itself is very nice. She is able to express the love she has for her partner and for herself within one song while making it a mellow pop reminder with solid synth production. If you’re putting together cool singles to listen to, sure. Bad call otherwise.
The strongest vocal performance of the album yet comes with “Orbit.” Though there are lyrical parts that clearly give away that she is singing about Maxx, her emotional bridge with Porton can also be linked to how close they were. There is a minimal cloud of reverberating notes that take up the background, but otherwise Miley’s vocals are placed on a pedestal so that you can hear it much better. It’s the kind of space rock she had explored in Dead Petz as well.
Production change is noticed
You can see inspired drum work being experimented with in songs like “Aftermath”. Miley is a powerhouse vocalist without doubt, but she at many times needs relevant space to explore her range and unique register. These are aftermaths of many different broken relationships, assumptions and premeditations that were had about her. Though REDLIGHTS is a song with a lot of potential, the typical electronic loop keeps you on the staler side of song compositions.
You’d assume the pattern will continue, but Neon Signs has a whole other vibe. Of all the electronic experiments done on this album, this one flips the right switches. Featuring Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow, it has an unpredictable rhythm yet tests the talent of both these amazing musicians. Synth arrangements are much stronger on this track as well as “Innocent Ways”. There’s an evident response and conversation about being the eldest of siblings and the kind of responsibility. Having an image like that has an impact on you.
Swinging to dream pop again
By the time you reach the penultimate track called “Snow,” you’ve heard Miley in a rather one-dimensional light. Though she has been famously recognized for her vocal depth and extremely recognizable register of sound, “Bass Persuades” dials down on the bass and keeps Miley on a 4 ft by 4 ft part of the dance floor. The energy rises and dips and sometimes sprays like a predictable sprinkler on a lawn, but has a possible vibe, given Miley’s strong tendency to return to form.
Closing with a different version of “Bass Persuades”, she is looking for more positive changes in her life, barring the loss of her godmother. She still doesn’t want you to assume that she has tamed down, can be predicted, or is relying heavily on overengineered, filtered vocals. Marriage bells are ringing, and her production with Maxx as a co-producer changes how she typically takes on an album project. If dropping the Cyrus surname is going to do something seismic, this isn’t the example we’d want to use.
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