MILEY - Bass Persuades [Indie Exclusive Red]

Miley Cyrus has rebuilt her sound often enough that each new record comes with a question attached, and Bass Persuades answers it by going further into the live-band territory she opened up on Endless Summer Vacation and Something Beautiful. Released under the single name MILEY, it is the least pop-facing album she has made.

The title track sets the terms with a bassline doing the work a chorus normally would. "Different Religion" brings in Model/Actriz and lets their abrasiveness through rather than sanding it down, which is not what a major label pop record usually does with a guest like that. "Let's Get Married" and "Orbit" are the most immediate songs here. "Neon Signs" features Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow, a longtime collaborator, and "Snow" strips things back to voice and not much else, which remains the most reliable way to be reminded what an instrument that voice is.

It closes with a track called "MILEY," which for an artist this practised at reinvention reads less like a statement and more like a shrug. Either way, the songs hold up.

Indie exclusive pressing on red vinyl with a poster, for independent shops only.