Miley Cyrus Talks 'Political' New Album, Says She Doesn't Know The New Taylor
Her new album 'Younger Now' is out today...
Miley Cyrus embraces her country roots more than ever before on her new album Younger Now, and she's living her Nashville life so much so that she hasn't met the new Taylor Swift.
The new country-pop queen is NME's cover girl this week, and the interview is as open as we've come to expect from the 'Malibu' singer as she talks freely about gender fluid, her 'Wrecking Ball' legacy, wearing dildos onstage in 2015, the Queen of Pop and going mainstream in Trump's America.
Although the upbeat title track is about embracing all former phases, Miley says it's more so about ageism and sexism, referencing Madonna as an inspiration who is unfairly attacked by the media for simply being older.
Like all this time I've been asleep
Even though it's not who I am
I'm not afraid of who I used to be
No one stays the same (Oh, oh)
You know what goes up must come down (Oh, oh)
Change is a thing you can count on (Oh, oh)
I feel so much younger now (Oh, oh)
Feels like I've been living in a dream
But never make it to the end
My eyes open when they feel the light
It's always right before I'm about to scream
No one stays the same (Oh, oh)
You know what goes up must come down (Oh, oh)
Change is a thing you can count on (Oh, oh)
I feel so much younger now (Oh, oh)
What goes up must come down
What goes up must come down
What goes up must come down
What goes up must come down (yeah)
No one stays the same (Oh, oh)
You know what goes comes back around (Oh, oh)
Change is a thing you can count on (Oh, oh)
I feel so much younger now (Oh, oh)
I feel so much younger now (yeah)
I feel so much younger now
While Miley shelved her girl-next-door image with Bangerz and Dead Petz, this time she "wanted to be more straightforward. I think little parts of everyone that I’ve been in my life are starting to come through in this one kind of era of the music that I’m doing, because I really can embrace what I’ve been before rather than trying to distance myself from it.”
"Now, I think I have more of an open mind where I’m like, ‘OK, I can be a bunch of different things every day’, I don’t have to be so locked into myself because then I’m putting those walls and borders around myself that I tell everyone else not to give in to.”
I mean, we wouldn't exactly say that Miley has ever put herself in a box, as she's spent the last five years literally destroying the pop star textbook with her 'Wrecking Ball', freedom and fluidity.
Speaking of 'Wrecking Ball', Miley is still proud of it: “You know, I should f**king be grateful every f**king day for that song, and I am. I think people look at things that they’ve done and there is this sense of shame, or ‘I wish I wouldn’t have done that’ – not because I’m naked, by the way; it’s because I feel like I’m in a deeper songwriting place."
And about the unicorn dildo she wore onstage during her Dead Petz-promoting tour? A "political rather than provocative" move, she says, to normalise different sex-gender relations, and liberate all kinds of sexuality. Queen.
Elsewhere in the interview while on the subject of identity, Miley is asked about old friend Taylor Swift's 'Look What You Made Me Do' video that portrays all of her different personas, and her answer floored us!
“I don’t really know much about it… I haven’t really heard it.” Um... WHAT?!
Does she not have Spotify? Or a phone? We see you on Instagram Live, Miley! How she managed to avoid T-Swift's record-breaking comeback is mind-blowing, but she doesn't seem fussed.
Somebody should tell her that Old Taylor is dead...
Words: Ross McNeilage
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WATCH MILEY CYRUS' 'MALIBU' BELOW
Or stood by the ocean
I never sat by the shore
Under the sun with my feet in the sand
But you brought me here
And I'm happy that you did
'Cause now I'm as free
As birds catching the wind
I always thought I would sink, so I never swam
I never went boatin', don't get how they are floatin'
And sometimes I get so scared of what I can't understand
But here I am
Next to you
The sky's more blue
In Malibu
Next to you
In Malibu
Next to you
We watched the sun go down
As we were walking
I'd spent the rest of my life
Just standing here talking
You would explain the current
As I just smile
Hoping that you'll stay the same
And nothing will change
And it'll be us, just for a while
Do they even exist?
That's when I make the wish
To swim away with the fish
Is it supposed to be this hot all summer long?
I never would've believed you
If three years ago you told me
I'd be here writing this song
But here I am
Next to you
The sky's so blue
In Malibu
Next to you
In Malibu
Next to you
Next to you
The sky's so blue
In Malibu
Next to you
We are just like the waves that flow back and forth
Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning
And you're there to save me
And I wanna thank you with all of my heart
It's a brand new start
A dream come true
In Malibu