Miley Cyrus has announced the release of her new album, "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz," following a surprise performance of the single "Doo It" at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday. What's even more surprising, is that the 22-year-old singer released her new album for free online, unlike her contemporaries.
Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne was the project's producer, a collaboration which seemed to come into fruition after a series of pivotal events in Miley's life, according to CNN.
In an interview with the New York Times, Cyrus explained how the project was the fruit of her personal evolution, which involved death, love and even her health like she has never known.
It all started with the death of her dog, Floyd, in April 2014. The beloved canine was reportedly killed by coyotes while Cyrus was still going through her "Bangerz" eight-month world tour. Two weeks following Floyd's death, Miley got hospitalized for more than a week in Kansas after experiencing severe allergies due to antibiotics. During this trying time, she was visited by Coyne, 54, with whom she had begun collaborating with.
According to Miley, it wasn't until her return home where she did natural healing that things started getting "really trippy."
"This is going to sound crazy, but a Chinese healer sent me into a state where my dog was lifted out of my lungs and placed on my shoulder," explained Miley. "I pet my dog for like three hours." After finally telling Floyd she had to "let go and put his energy out. I really think, in a way, his energy went into Wayne's energy. What he was to me, Wayne has become."
Since then, Coyne, who collaborated with the former Disney star a few months earlier for her cover of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," has become both her mentor and artistic enabler.
"Her life, to her, is art," Coyne said. "If she wants to look this way and say these things, she does it."
So, what does "Dead Petz" sound like?
In a review by the New York Daily News, "Dead Petz" is described as "a psychedelic pop pastiche, a 22 song blur that puts into sound her oft-mentioned love of weed."
"Amid the stoned-out lyrics, and meandering segments, there's a lot of creativity going on," the review adds. "While getting stoned may have served as the project's main muse, some sober choices came into play."
According to TIME, what really set "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz" apart from the rest is the fact that, despite the album's title, the whole thing isn't centred on Miley.
"Yeah, I smoke pot/ Yeah, I love peace," she sings at the start of "Dooo It!," a song she debuted during Sunday's MTV VMAs.
Perhaps the songs are more for pondering the essence of the universe, rather than for partying. More than half of the song list spans four minutes 5 and a half minutes at most, while some verge on four minutes.
While "Dooo It!" clearly talks about weed, it isn't just this subject that accounts for the outspoken 22-year-old's low-key presence in the album. Her voice deeply meshes into the songs while mixed with fuzzy guitar sounds and ethereal keyboards that she reportedly got into with Wayne Coyne, who clearly lent a psychedelic touch to most of the songs.
"Dead Petz's" tracks are more like leaked demos rather than the polished and flashy pop tunes of her "Bangerz" album. This rather homemade quality of the album showcases a more raw Miley.
According to Christopher Rogers of Hollywood Life, "Dead Petz" is "definitely innovative."
"The songs are completely different from anything Miley has ever done before, but we're assuming that's what she wanted," he said. "It's no secret that Miley loves to color outside the lines, and she achieves that and more with this new album."
Clearly, the album is influence by her tabloid-chronicled and ever-changing and evolving personal life. Miley said in her New York Times interview that she is now becoming "more of a homebody," spending more of her time at home doing yoga, smoking, playing with her pets and making her art.
When compared to pop stars like Taylor Swift, Miley said she doesn't gather "musicians, actresses, models, entrepreneurs" as friends.
"I'm not trying to be in the squad," she added. "None of my friends are famous and not because of any other reason than I just like real people who are living real lives, because I'm inspired by them."
Trying to control her own image, Cyrus also carefully puts out a factual version of herself to her fans.
"I put naked pictures on my Instagram - I don't care," she said. "It's not interesting anymore to see me like that."
In 2014, the singer created the non-profit Happy Hippie Foundation for the homeless and L.G.B.T. youth.
"I feel very gender-fluid," she said. "For a long time I didn't understand my own sexuality. I would get really frustrated and think I'd never understand what I am, because I can't even figure out if I'm feeling more like a girl or boy. It took me talking to enough trans people to realize that I didn't ever have to decide on one."
In a nutshell, "Dead Petz" is an assortment of stoner-pop songs. It definitely isn't your conventional Miley Cyrus.
Attesting to this last fact is how much the album cost - about $50,000, which is half of what "Bangerz" cost. RCA Records, her label, also reportedly did not contribute a single cent to the budget for this new album.
"They had never heard the record until it was done," Miley said.
Because of this, "Dead Petz" feels more Miley than anything she has ever created.
"When I made Bangerz, it was as true to me then as this record is now," she told the New York Times. "It just happened naturally in my head. It's like anything-styles just change."
As for the album's SoundCloud release, it was reportedly Coyne's uncommon path with the Flaming Lips that persuaded Miley stream the songs on the site.
The outspoken singer said she could not imagine fitting into the mainstream mold ever again.
"I don't think I'll grow that way. It seems like it would be backwards," she said, adding that "her team of advisers said they'd never seen someone at my level, especially a woman, have this much freedom. I literally can do whatever I want. It's insane."
"This music was not meant to be a rebellion," she concluded. "It was meant to be a gift."
Miley says she wrote all 10 of the 23 songs in "Dead Petz," and for Miley, this full personal and artistic freedom is something that she has earned after almost a decade in the industry.
Listen to Miley Cyrus' "Dead Petz" album below and judge for yourself.
