Just when Miley was looking like the sane one, shes back with a new EP thats sure to irritate everyone whod hoped her writhing, wrecking-ball days were in the past. She Is Coming is an unkempt little EP that tries to cram her wild oeuvre, from molly to Mark Ronson, into just six songs. That said, you cant deny Cyrus remains a freak of pop nature. Only she would tell the guys who just won Grammys and Oscars for Shallow to try their hand at lite, percussive trap. Thats just Miley being Miley. And shes just getting started (two more EPs are scheduled for release later this year).
Cattitude is a return to gyrating glory, time-pegged for Pride. Cyrus cedes the nastiest lines to RuPaul, one of her biggest musical influences, who interpolates his 2014 Sissy That Walk while Cyrus echoes the rump-a-pum-pum of Missy Elliotts Work It in the background. Together, this feline power couple eclipses the more forgettable collabs with Ghostface Killah and Swae Lee.
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The pussy-power shifts gears with the minor-key head-banger, Mothers Daughter, the chorus of which (Dont fuck with my freedom) making for a catch-all resistance anthem Cyrus delivers with a perplexing amount of ennui. On that song, she also toys with our Pavlovian response to hearing Snaps Ive Got The Power by singing shes got the power, but nothing like that electric shock of recognition ever arrives. On the other hand, in a song about preserving independence, there is something defiant and formidable about the idea that Cyrus would withhold gratification on her own song (fucking with our freedom, so to speak) just to prove a point.
Cyrus closes out with The Most, a song she wrote before marrying her husband, Liam Hemsworth. Its an embattled marital ballad about the paradoxical rush of bewilderment and gratitude that comes from being loved. All that you are is all I ever need / I dont know why you still believe in me, she sings, conflicted yet in awe, over a bed of crackling keys. The song sounds more like its from Tunnel of Love than Bangerz, but thats because shell never stop experimenting with other peoples sounds. She cant stop. Miley will always be Miley.