Tell me something beautiful until your lips turn blue

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

06/06/25 : Something Beautiful - Miley Cyrus 

Our third visit with Miley and so far she's been one of those artists that when she does things well, she does them very well but she also makes some curious decisions at times - I'm expecting some decent enough stuff on here though.

Hmmm - it's an odd one. There is indeed decent enough stuff on here, but it all sounds a lot like a Stevie Nicks solo album from the 70s - I hasten to add that I've never heard such a thing, but if I had, I reckon this is what it would sound like. And I've got no problem that sound, but I'm not sure it's the sort of thing her fans are crying out for - maybe it's just her latest attempt to prove she's no longer Hannah Montana, but I think must people have accepted that by now surely. I didn't mind this, but I can't say I loved it on first listen - although part of me is tempted to give it another go to see if it grows on me

We're at #3 in the charts with a new entry this week (and I suspect the reason it's not #1 is the relative lack of repeat streams from her fanbase) and the rest of the top five are Ed Sheeran (his second week at #1, 22 weeks after his first), Sabrina Carpenter, the Fleetwood Mac best-of (the highest its ever been) and The Weeknd best-of - what a peculiar top five!  And what other new entries have we got this week? Not many, is the short answer!

Garbage (#24)
If you like Garbage, then I see no reason why you won't like this. Shirley has as much attitude as ever (possibly even more) and it's all well put together, but I always find a whole album of theirs a bit too much.

Matt Berninger (#26)
I recognised the name, but had to Google him to remind me he's the lead singer of The National - so I'm expecting to like at least some of it. And I did - if you like The National, then I see no reason why you won't like this. My only comment would be that I never really understand why members of a band release a solo album which sounds exactly like the band's output - try something new, dude!

The 1975 (#55)
A live album which I was fine not listening to - but if you like The 1975, then I see no reason why you won't like this.

Caroline (#88)
I had no idea about Caroline before I listened to this - and having listened to it, I continue to say I've no idea about Caroline. Wikipedia tells me it's "folk rock and Midwest emo based on post-rock", so hopefully that clears it up for you - but all I can say is that I don't like it. Let's just end by saying if you like Caroline, then I see no reason why you won't like this one - but I've no idea if that's actually true.

There's no massively wild and wacky re-entries this week but there are some interesting ones at least - Taylor Swift's 1989 is a re-entry at #39 despite it also being at #67 in the chart this week, which makes absolutely no sense, does it? Until you learn that Taylor got back control of her original master recordings this week, so the true fans were allowed to listen to the original versions again without being considered traitors, and it seems that in this case they prefer the original to the TV version (if this makes no sense to you, then don't worry because you REALLY don't need to know). We also have re-entries for Beyonce (#85) and Robbie Willams (#87) because they're on tour and #95-#100 are also all re-entries including, quite bizarrely, Dire Straits (#99) and Mark Knopfler (#100) - again!

Last week I said that Sparks would be a "one and done" and, for a change, I was right! Miley is going to do a bit better than that I reckon - I'm going for #10, even I suspect that might be generous. And after Taylor's good news, her stats this week are improved to three in the top forty and seven in the entire chart.

Wikipedia tells this is her ninth studio album (she's only 32!) - apparently it's a visual album, which sounds fancy but basically means there's some video that goes along with it. There's a load more text about it but surprisingly little content - apparently it's a concept album inspired by The Wall about "healing from trauma and finding beauty in the darkest moments of life", which I have to admit I missed. There's a lot of text listing the 87 musicians involved creating the album, including some interesting names including Pino Palladino (the guy's 67 but still very much in demand), Brittany Howard (ex Alabama Shakes front-person), Danielle Haim and Flea.

The critics were a bit mixed on it with those that loved it, loving it a lot ("a fully realized artistic statement" according to NME) and those that hated it, well you can guess ("practically unlistenable parade of trite ditties" according to The Telegraph). Personally, I feel The Arts Desk (whoever they are) came closest with "yet another wonderfully messy instalment in a brilliantly messy career – and maybe, maybe a hint of the masterpiece she surely has in her yet". Commercially, it's done pretty well globally, but not made it to #1 anywhere with #2 in New Zealand and Belgium being as good as it gets for the lass.

Being a new album, I thought I wasn't going to be able to go to discogs.com to find out how much you could pay for it - but how wrong I was! A bog standard version will set you back about £25 (plus £15 postage) but if having too much money is an issue for you then you can fork out £100 for a signed sea blue vinyl version. This felt like an interesting album (and was certainly the most interesting album of the week unless you're a particular fan of the other artists involved) but I'm not 100% convinced that feeling translated into being - although she's certainly not churning out disposable pop!

30/05/25 - Enjoyably bonkers
13/06/25 - Pretty decent