From child star to phoenix rising from the ashes, Miley Cyrus reinvents the meaning of rock opera.

Written by: Hannah Lemke

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Photo From Google

“But the beauty one finds alone is a prayer that longs to be shared.” 

– Miley Cyrus, “Prelude”

What the actual fuck. 

No one can deny it’s the year of the female popstar: from Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour, to Chappell’s tease of “The Giver” via voicemail, to Charli xcx’s domination of the market with “brat summer” – but where was Miley Cyrus in this? We’ve watched her evolution and consumed the story she’s so cleverly crafted: from the Disney Channel icon, to diva, to rebel, to heartthrob, to rockstar, to Dolly-look-alike – she’s had an epic journey coming into herself as an artist and a brand. But ahead of the release of her forthcoming project, Something Beautiful, the pop artist has flown fairly under the radar (aside from her show-stopping Grammy performance of “Flowers” in 2024). Now, she’s returned to tell her story – and a rather relatable one at that. 

On May 9th, Cyrus teased four songs (Act I) in an EP entitled “More to Lose.” The EP comes ahead of her album, Something Beautiful, which is set to release on May 30th.

The album’s moniker, “Something Beautiful” saunters in after the symphonic prelude stuns listeners’s tastebuds with an orchestra of emotion. With lyrics, “said I don’t want to talk about it for too long / Baby now I think I do” she sets up the story by becoming her own narrator – admittedly self-aware, coming to terms with the fact that she’s finally ready to tell the truth. Like a carefully crafted story, the song catapults listeners from soothing, hypnotic vocals to an almost blood-thirsty version of vengeance. With instrumentation and tone picking up at 1:30, (in tangent to lyrics “boy I’m losing my breath”), the song begins to feel more anxious, stressful: mimicking  the cyclical patterns of ups and downs in a toxic relationship.

With the chaos of free jazz, a single saxophone holds a shrill note over a slow, marching drum beat, and a hypnotic chant across the song’s outro: “eat my heart / break my soul / take my parts / let me go”. The chaos ensues as the song dips to convey the feelings of distress in giving into the manipulation and deceit that, frankly, fucks you up from the inside out. And then, as quick as it began, the song settles – with a nice little conclusion, you begin to forget that you were ever afraid. 

From there, “End of the World” takes listeners on an exciting 80’s-like pop journey – almost a humorous, ironic delusion with “let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world”. It drips with the corniness and cheese of a picture perfect housewife – holding it together with a facade while her world is crumbling down around her. It mimics the desperation felt once a person leaves something toxic: knowing it’s bad, knowing it’s harmful, but for just a minute, wishing it was all just pretend. “Show me how you’d hold me if tomorrow was coming for sure” – it’s almost backwards, this thought – the awareness of the inevitable end. And still, the love. Transitioning from the upbeat, pop chorus to an almost plea and back again, the song becomes entirely mournful – ending with a verse about seeing the sky fall down, in front of one’s very eyes.

And finally, the conclusion to the tease: “More to Lose” – in our rock opera, this would be the  epic ballad. Cyrus bellows out the pain attached to heartbreak, addressing the dark parts of relationships that people refuse to talk about and face: “I’ll stay / when the ecstasy is far away / and I pray / it’s coming around again” The lyrics, “I knew someday that one would have to choose / I just thought we had more to lose” again address the awareness that in coming to terms with the situation. As the song picks up, a guitar comes in to strum simply along to lyrics: “My tears are streaming like a favorite show,” a callback to her roots as Hannah Montana, now commentary about the addiction of being stuck in a cyclical loop – of depression, manipulation, whatever the battle be. Again the saxophone comes in with an almost synthy tone, echoing the lyrics with a jaunty bassline as adlibs dance between the beats. Again, the lines:  “I’ll stay / when the ecstasy is far away / and I’ll pray / that it’s coming around again” this time lending an answer: “but it don’t babe.” 

Everything down to the very last detail in this project is done right – from the formality in the marketing copy with a third person point of view, not pretending to be anything but marketing reps releasing a press release (which is epic and powerful in and of itself – acknowledging herself as the news), to the album art for More to Lose: a pouty lip, fixed stare into the camera, donned a Phoenix rising from the ashes (of her home, life, failed relationship) – it’s both a metaphorical and literal presentation of her remarkable evolution, the one we’ve all been waiting for. And it looks like Miley is finally about to pop off.

Catch Something Beautiful, out on all platforms May 30th.