Miley Cyrus 'Bass Persuades' Review: Pretty but Passable — SkimNews
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- Miley Cyrus released her tenth studio album "Bass Persuades" on Friday without press previews, running just 38 minutes across 10 tracks including a closing remix of the title track
- Maxx Morando, Cyrus's fiancé, served as writer-producer collaborator on all but two tracks, and the album's romantic lyrics — including the synthy easy-listening single "Let's Get Married" — reflect her real-life relationship with him
- The title track and lead single promised a pure club record with throbbing rhythms and dance-floor instructions, but the album pivots into love ballads after the opening two tracks and doesn't return to that sound until the closing remix
- "Aftermath" (track 5) is called the album's best song — a philosophical power ballad musing on the end of all things — though the reviewer notes it would make an odd album closer because it's the record's only sad track
- "Innocent Ways" is identified as the album's most talked-about track, with Cyrus singing at length about a sibling in crisis ("many listeners will presume to be Noah"), including the lyric "Fall out from the fame / Claim my mother's maiden name"
- The review frames "Bass Persuades" as a transitional, undercooked project likely to land in the middle of any Cyrus discography ranking — "no one's favorite Miley album, nor anyone's least favorite" — and notes upcoming Hollywood Bowl shows themed around just nine of the ten tracks
Why it matters: For Cyrus, "Bass Persuades" is her first album after last year's "Something Beautiful" and arrives as a reset under a new label, with nearly every track co-written with fiancé Maxx Morando. The reviewer's verdict — that the lead single over-promised on club energy and the record reads as filler-ish rather than a bold new chapter — matters because Cyrus has booked themed Hollywood Bowl shows built around these nine tracks, meaning the live presentation will have to compensate for material that the critic describes as "kind of whelming."
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