BANGERZ THOUGHTS (From someone who was really looking forward to this album and is really digging Miley right now.)
OKAY:
I'm going to get the more critical/negative stuff out of the way first.
- Katy Perry and Lady GaGa's albums are going to be better than this.
I say this for two reasons. There tend to be two directions a pop act can go in. One is to make an album full of smash hit singles that loosely fit together into some sort of theme, but otherwise pretty much stand alone all on the song's own merits. See: Teenage Dream. Or you can have an album that, while obviously wanting to have smash hit songs, is more of a "collective experience" that is meant to be listened to and assessed as a body in full. See: Born This Way (regardless of what you thought about it).
The problem with Bangerz is Miley basically looks a bit amateurish compared to Katy Perry on the smash hit standalone song angle and to Lady Gaga on the other.
One one hand, collectively, there is a definite through-line to the album. Someone pointed out earlier that it was basically like the timeline of her relationship with Liam, and I went into Bangerz expecting that, and it REALLY WAS that. The problem I had with what Miley did is that, ultimately, she just isn't able to convey her ideas as creatively or as cleverly as Lady GaGa does. The album is just too literal. I like that Miley is upfront and not trying to do clever wordplay and symbolism, but the result just never feels creatively interesting enough to make me feel like her songs are applicable to literally more than Liam Hemsworth.
An exception? "FU", which I thought was a total jam, and extremely well sung. It was interesting, and high-energy, and it was a perfect blend of Miley's tell-it-like-it-is attitude with a fun, dynamic presentation.
But the second half of the album, which I found much better than the first, overall feels like kind of a slog. "Maybe You're Right" and "FU" and "Drive" and "Someone Else" just feel too repetitive thematically, and songs perched in between like "#GetItRight" (which I really liked) and "Do My Thang" (which I also liked) aren't really strong enough to break up the monotony.
Now in terms of the Katy Perry comprison, Miley has interesting ideas for individual songs but the songs lack the polish and direction to be executed as well as they could be, and the poor writing has a big part to play in that. The worst parts of this album are when the songs meander and don't go anywhere. I saw a lot of love for "Adore You", and yes it's gentle and vulnerable, but I thought the song lacked any sort of build or climax or really any direction. 4x4 was similar -- interesting idea that had potential to be more than the catchy-but-repetitive-mess that it ends up being. Miley has this penchant for repeating certain phrases ad-nauseum when just coming up with a more creative rhyme would have worked wonders ("Adore You", "4x4", "Do My Thang"). "Drive" also has such potential, but like most of the songs with Mike Will Made It, it has various hooks that feel like they're getting there but don't hit the SPOT like a Katy Perry song. Miley really needed more Dr. Luke -- "Wrecking Ball" is fantastic, and listening to various other tracks, it feels like a lot of the groundwork is there for a great song, but the writing and direction are just not up to snuff.
I mean honestly I feel like the hook and chorus Miley sings in "23" is better than most of the stuff on Bangerz. That song is ratchet club trash done RIGHT -- catchy and ghetto as fuck. And that's sort of the problem: The first half of Bangerz is more in the vein of "23", but 23 is just... better.
THE GOOD
To say this is the worst pop album of the year is ridiculous. There's a lot of good stuff here. For one thing, Miley's vocals are fantastic. Unequivocally, this is a highlight.
I also think a lot of the songs, if not on the caliber of "We Can't Stop" and "Wrecking Ball", ARE indeed really fun. "SMS (Bangerz)" does exactly what you hoped it would do. "FU" was AWESOME. "#GetItRight" is fun and very boppable and listenable. "Drive" will probably grow on people and become very well liked. "4x4" is really quite an interesting mix of urban/country.
Basically, I feel like the more Miley has a melody, the better the chance the song had of being. Unfortunately, the songs with the best melodies are all grouped together and literally have the same theme; it's almost like I want to disperse them through the playlist and say "screw the throughline".
