I like Miley Cyrus - I listen to her music, appreciate her performances throughout film and television, and enjoy her persona. You would think I would have therefore loved her musical film/visual album Something Beautiful.

 

But I’m realizing that I’m just not into these conceptual album films - even to the level of Beyonce, whose Lemonade (2016) and Black is King (2020) I truly tried to appreciate. 

 

I see these visual album projects as something to put on in the background while you’re having a party or doing something in the foreground. I find it hard to sit and watch them with ease for an hour or more. I find them all a wee bit overwrought and self-aggrandized. 

 

Don’t get me wrong - I love a good music video. I’m a Gen-Xer who grew up obsessed with MTV. Music videos are something I cherish. But sitting down and watching an hour-long music video, or a flowing compilation of them, even if it’s by one of your favorite artists? Who has time for that? 

 

I appreciate the artistic vision behind Miley’s film. It opens with dramatic instrumental music, mysterious visuals and poetic words spoken in her distinctive, husky voice. I caught something about “the beauty one finds alone is meant to be shared” or some such notion.

 

Then it evolves into explosive performance footage and more typical music video style fantasy shots of Miley looking absolutely gorgeous, doing her thing. Sometimes smooching a mysterious someone. There’s a lot of black and white, some sepia tones and then later, for other songs, it morphs into neon-lit color.

 

There are 13 songs featured here off her new album, and it all sounds great. There’s 70s inspired rock, some psychedelic stuff and a disco/dance groove that really caught my ear. I’m looking forward to listening to the non-visual version of the album in my car on a long drive - my preferred way to listen these days.

 

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Something Beautiful are the sequences of Miley on Hollywood Blvd, rolling around on the sidewalk stars, running her hands along wire fences and walls and floors. Does she know how filthy that place is? Last time I set foot on Hollywood Blvd, it was full of unhoused people and did not smell particularly great. They must have power washed the entire place before Miley filmed there.

 

But anyway, back to the visual album. This is definitely “Something Beautiful.” Miley looks and sounds great, and if music videos are your thing, there are 13 of them here. I don’t know what more I could have asked for. I am realizing that visual albums and extended, hour-plus music videos are just not my thing. That said, if I were Miley, and I looked and sounded that good, I’d probably make one, too. Why not? You’re only this young and beautiful once. You may as well memorialize it.