Throughout the identical yr, Cyrus returned to hip-hop-infused pop with She Is Coming, a well-received EP that includes collaborations with Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah, singer-rapper Swae Lee and drag icon RuPaul. Teaming with the latter for a sassy monitor referred to as Cattitude underscored Cyrus’s standing as an LGBTQ function mannequin; in previous interviews, she has recognized as pansexual and a “queer girl”. “I really like her [sexual] fluidity, her queerness and the way she is at all times unapologetically herself,” says ABISHA. Cyrus has additionally proven her help for this neighborhood by launching The Happy Hippie Foundation, a nonprofit that goals “to rally younger individuals to battle injustice going through homeless youth, LGBTQ youth and different weak populations”. Then on the 2019 Glastonbury pageant, Cyrus proved she might pull collectively the disparate strands of her profession with a wildly entertaining set peppered with intelligent cowl variations. “She handled that slot like a rock headline present and threw herself into overlaying the whole lot from Metallica to the unique 9 Inch Nails tune that impressed her Black Mirror monitor On a Roll,” Hunt says.
Cyrus adopted her triumphant Glastonbury efficiency by honing her rock chops on 2020’s retro-leaning Plastic Hearts album, for which she duetted with two icons of the style: Joan Jett and Billy Idol. She additionally stored one foot in pop’s current by scoring a zingy hit single, Prisoner, with fellow modern hitmaker Dua Lipa. So, as she enters a brand new period with Infinite Summer season Trip, followers already know to count on the surprising. As Cyrus informed us again in 2020, she is an artist who “can’t be tamed”.
Cyrus’s profitable shapeshifting displays not simply her personal musical versatility, but additionally the unusually fluid musical period that she is navigating. “Even simply a few years in the past, it may need been [seen as] a bit unusual for an enormous star who is thought for one model of music to place out one thing in one other model. However lately, it is fairly commonplace,” says McIntyre. Nonetheless, he additionally believes that Cyrus can experience the genre-blurring wave so confidently as a result of she has developed a genuinely distinctive voice. “We recognise her approach of writing, whether or not [she is singing] a rock tune, pop tune or one thing else,” he says. It could be slightly pat to recommend that each pivot she makes could be defined by quoting See You Once more’s well-known lyric: “She’s simply being Miley.” Nonetheless, 16 years after she branched out from Hannah Montana, there isn’t any denying that Cyrus has constructed a formidable identification as a real musical chameleon. No matter lane she decides to drive down subsequent, individuals can be paying consideration.
Infinite Summer season Trip is out now.
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