Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz
★★ ½
From career suicide to partial resurrection; suffice to say it was a busy Sunday for Miley Cyrus.
As host of the 2015 MTV VMAs in Los Angeles, the pop starlet irritated with try-hard antics and annoyingly self-referential gags. Her final act was to announce her surprise new album, “Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz,” but the live debut of the album’s opening track, “Dooo It!” — a tinny, electro knock-off — served as an awful teaser.
Thankfully, it was a red herring, because the actual album (which can be heard on her website) is a sprawling, tripped-out, 23-track epic on which the cartoonish Miley has thankfully been toned down a little. “Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz” often meanders and is occasionally willfully indulgent, but it’s also a reminder that the 22-year-old can use her “out-there” persona for good.
Recorded with and co-produced by her psychedelic cohorts the Flaming Lips (who inform the album’s music heavily), many tracks directly reference her deceased animal buddies. As silly as that subject matter sounds, Cyrus’ gift for singing with feel comes across on “The Floyd Song (Sunrise)” (named after her dog), while the fragile piano ballad “Pablow the Blowfish” must be the only eulogy to a poisonous vertebrate ever recorded — and certainly the most moving.
It’s not all pet-related moping, however. Raunchy references are plentiful, peaking with “Fweaky,” and the camp ode to lesbian sex that is “Bang Me Box.” Cyrus’ penchant for weed is never too far away, either, and the saucer-eyed “Cyrus Skies” has gorgeous echoes of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”-era Beatles, topped off with blasts of her remarkable voice.
Fans of her 2013 “Bangerz” won’t find much in the way of pop satisfaction, but it’s clear that “Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz” is ultimately a side project. It’s Cyrus exploring her every musical and personal whim — and often to good effect. The Technicolor train wreck that preceded the album’s release wasn’t much fun, but don’t give up on her just yet. If 2013 and 2015 taught us anything, it’s that there’s far more to Miley Cyrus than what she does at the MTV VMAs.