Miley Cyrus - Younger Now

After the psychedelic sprawl of Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, this 2017 album was the hard reset. Younger Now strips almost everything back to guitar, bass, drums, and voice, produced entirely with Oren Yoel, and leans into the country and classic pop roots Cyrus grew up inside rather than running from them.

"Malibu" led the campaign and became one of her biggest singles, a plainspoken love song with almost no production tricks in it. "Rainbowland" brings in her godmother Dolly Parton for a duet that is equal parts sincere and knowingly corny. "Week Without You" has the swing of a sixties girl-group record, and the title track opens the album with a thesis statement about growing up in public that has aged better than most of the coverage it got at the time.

It is the quietest record in her catalog and, for a certain kind of listener, the most rewarding one. No provocations, no costumes, just a very good singer working with a very small band.