At the end of her closing performance at last night’s VMAs, Miley Cyrus took advantage of the platform to share a little information with the world: She was releasing a brand-new album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, and it’s streaming online now, free of charge. The A.V. Club has given it a listen, and we can assure you it’s no Bangerz. It’s 23 tracks, the majority of which were produced by Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, and it sounds like exactly what you’d imagine it would—i.e. sprawling and drug-fueled. It’s basically Their Satanic Mileys Request.
The album was born out of precisely what it’s named for: the loss of three pets in rapid succession. (One of them was a blowfish, because this is Miley Cyrus we’re talking about.) In an interview with The New York Times, Cyrus explains the process that led to this new collaboration with Coyne and the various artists who joined her in the studio. “This is going to sound crazy,” the singer warns, but a Chinese healer “sent me into a state where my dog was lifted out of my lungs and placed on my shoulder. I pet my dog for like three hours.” Cyrus then claims, “I really think, in a way, his energy went into Wayne’s energy. What he was to me, Wayne has become.”
Exploring the music created by Cyrus and a dead dog that now inhabits the body of Wayne Coyne, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz is a mish-mash of musical styles, varying levels of production, and the overall vibe of somebody who is doing whatever the hell they want. For every strong song, like “Tiger Dreams (featuring Ariel Pink)“, there are two or three outlandish throw-aways, like “Miley Tibetan Bowlzz” or “I’m So Drunk.” There are expansive, meandering jam sessions that peter out, and a cartoonishly explicit soul jam called “Bang Me Box.” Other guests include Sarah Barthel of Phantogram and Detroit MC Big Sean, with several tracks produced by Oren Yoel and Bangerz helmer Mike Will Made-It. It’s essentially the sound of a rampaging id. Presumably, it’s going to be absolutely massive in Williamsburg.