Miley Cyrus' new album: Is "Something Beautiful" now healing society?

“I love it when pop culture and politics meet,” American singer Miley Cyrus told Vanity Fair magazine in 2019. And for the world in these gloomy times, she already has the right first names: Destiny and Hope – Miley was just the remnant of her childhood nickname Smiley. From teen idol, Cyrus became a pop queen, philanthropic, confident and political, an activist for LGBTQ+ and human rights who founded the Happy Hippie Foundation in 2014, an organization to protect young people from vulnerable groups. She also expressed her deep dislike of Donald Trump early and repeatedly. Her ninth album is released today (May 30).

It's called "Something Beautiful," a concept album, and in times when the Trump administration is acting as a kind of wrecking ball against democracy and vulnerable groups, its theme is "healing." The 32-year-old singer revealed to Harper's Bazaar magazine that the work was inspired by Pink Floyd's rock opera "The Wall" (1979). This doesn't sound unimaginable at first, given that Cyrus has already collaborated with the psychedelic indies Flaming Lips and played on Tibetan singing bowls. Anyone who has followed her career knows: Miley is a big player.

And the opening, aptly titled "Prelude," has something quite experimental about it, a minimal-music-like, rhythmic twinkle over which Cyrus whispers: "As if you held a handful of ashes, / your hands cannot hold the things / that have already vanished into thin air." The last line is romantic: "The beauty someone finds alone / is a prayer longing to be shared." Can you hear a political resonance there?

The title track is also unusual—a 70s R&B ballad begins, with lascivious horns snaking beneath Cyrus's voice, before a brutal rock guitar slashes in like an axe and a saxophone screams. "Eat my heart, break my soul..." Cyrus cries.

Her "attempt to cure a sick culture with music" (Cyrus in an Apple interview with Zane Lowe) is consequently pop and double pop. "End of The World," dedicated to her mother, is a kind of "Mamma Mia 2025" that would also fit well in the songbook of Abbas' Björn and Benny.

The music is super melodic, the lyrics dark: "Let's pretend it's not the end of the world," sings Cyrus in the chorus. "Baby, you always thought about the future like it was already yours." And then a reference to the heart date of American democracy: "The sky fell like a comet on the Fourth of July." Politically intended? American end times?

The track alternates between dance music and ballads. "Easy Lover" is vaguely reminiscent of Jacko's "Billie Jean," and The Cure-esque guitar twangs can be heard in "Golden Burning Sun." The synthetic disco sound of the 80s celebrates a powerful revival: Communards and REM's "Losing My Religion" feed into the song "Walk of Fame." Not everything catches your ear the first time, but by the third listen, the combination of shimmering sounds and a raspy voice has become ingrained in the listener's head. This is the stuff that wins Grammys.

Recently, the former Disney Channel star Cyrus's career has been going superbly. She rose to stardom at the age of 14 with the series "Hannah Montana" and subsequently experienced several ups and downs. Last year, she belatedly won her first Grammys – her funk-pop farewell song "Flowers," from her previous album "Endless Summer Vacation" (2023), won the awards for "Single of the Year" and "Best Pop Solo Performance."

In the singles category, she beat out strong contenders like Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" and Olivia Rodrigo's "Vampire." The song became Cyrus's biggest hit to date, reaching number one in more than 40 countries around the world—and reaching 2.7 billion streams in 2023.

Among her colleagues, however, Cyrus had long been recognized as a woman of good. On the Bob Dylan compilation "Chimes of Freedom" (2012), released for Amnesty International's 50th anniversary, she was featured alongside major names in rock, pop, and indie music—from Elvis Costello to Patti Smith to Joan Baez. She sang "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"—considered by Dylan connoisseurs to be his most accomplished love poem.

Signs of healing also appear in Cyrus's family life. "My dad and I have had our challenges over the years," Cyrus wrote on Instagram just three weeks ago. But time has healed many wounds, bridges have been built, and family is more important to her than anything else in her 30s.

Billy Ray Cyrus is a country music artist whose star rose to prominence in the early 1990s. In the US media, he is often referred to as the "Achy-Breaky Heart" singer—in reference to his biggest hit from 1992. His father, Cyrus, made a comeback in early 2019 when he duetted on a remix of "Old Town Road," rapper Lil Nas X's debut single. Trump invited him to his inauguration ball on January 20 (the performance turned into a stagecraft fiasco).

"How did you raise such a liberal daughter, Billy? How could this happen?" Trump asked the singer during a campaign appearance in July 2024. Miley had already posted against Trump on Instagram during the 2016 election campaign. The caption read: "Gonna vom / move out da country #aintapartyindausaanymo (I'm going to vomit / I'm going to leave the country. Ain't no more partying in the USA)." She later regretted the statement and stayed, saying that moving away would have been an "escape" for her.

"Every day on my Instagram account, I hear, 'Get out of here. When are you leaving? (...) Does it matter where I am? Because wherever I am, my f... ing voice will be heard!" she told the "New Musical Express" in 2017. On the screens of her concerts, she said, "the words 'education' and 'healthcare' and 'equality,' 'justice,' 'freedom,' 'liberation.' These are the things that make up our country. There is no party in the USA," she said, alluding to one of her hits, "if it's filled with hate, discrimination, walls, violence, and all those things."

And then, in the same year, she sang the joyful song about “Rainbowland” with her godmother and country icon Dolly Parton, also an LGBTQ+ supporter, which longed for diversity under the sign of the rainbow: “Wouldn’t it be nice to live in paradise, / where we’re free to be exactly who we are? / Let’s all dig deep inside. / Let’s put aside prejudice and fear, / let’s set wrongs right / and stop the fight / ’cause I promise no one will win.” Even here, a desire for healing was audible.

That didn't apply to the president, however. In 2019, Cyrus doubled down on it in Vanity Fair: "As someone who's so proud to be an activist, should I be proud that I'm running away from a completely racist, sexist, hateful asshole and leaving everyone else in this country to live under him? You can't leave everyone else to fend for themselves."

Cyrus went missing during the 2024 election campaign. No political statements against Trump have been found from that time, nor has there been an explanation for her absence. Contrary to expectations, Cyrus also did not support Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. She was absent alongside Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Common, Gracie Abrams, Cardi B., Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Lizzo, J. Lo, and Lady Gaga. Perhaps she felt that healing is incompatible with open partisanship. Perhaps she wanted her album to speak for itself.

It has hardly any parallels to "The Wall," except that it was also the poppiest record for psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd to date. The British "Guardian" headlined its review of Cyrus's record as "psychedelic as a baked potato." There are parallels in terms of content. The existential crisis of the hero of "The Wall" continues at the end of the double album.

Just as the first-person narrator in “Give Me Love” – the final ballad, interwoven with science-fiction keyboards – doesn’t sound healed: “So I bid farewell to earthly pleasures / as my perfect Eden burns down / I’m devoured alive by a monster’s mouth / as I fearlessly cry out your name.” Political?

A film based on the album will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 6, will be released in theaters in the US and Canada for one day on June 12, and will be shown internationally on June 27. Her film, she says, is also inspired by Alan Parker's 1982 adaptation of "The Wall," "only with better wardrobe and more glamour."

The latter has always been a part of pop culture. And Cyrus's glamour is currently making plenty of headlines for magazines like "Elle" and "Cosmopolitan," whether she's walking the red carpet at the Oscars in a McQueen halter dress with lace gloves or appearing in Paris in April in an off-the-shoulder black minidress.

But: "I love it when pop culture and politics meet," Cyrus said six years ago. In the pop of "Something Beautiful," this clash is imperceptible. The dictatorial tendencies of the current government, its disrespect for democratic institutions, its aggressive tone towards individuals, can naturally be frightening. Cyrus' labelmate Bruce Springsteen was threatened by the president for his inflammatory anti-Trump speeches on his European tour. When he comes home, we'll see how he fares. Since then, people have been waiting for a storm of resistance to stand by Springsteen. For America, Rainbowland. Of course, no one can be forced to raise their damn voice.

"Something Beautiful" turned out—at least—too beautiful. A well-rounded piece.

Miley Cyrus – “ Something Beautiful” (Columbia) – out May 30th