pika

What is with pop singles lately wasting their catchiest hooks on the verses. "While you decide who you are" / "How you like me where you are" is the strongest part by far and they go nowhere with it. The chorus dipping lower at the beginning ("Hate that I made you love me") makes the build up feel so uneventful. This is as an easy #1 for her though and she's smart to lean into TikTok edit music as that's what keeps songs lingering around rather than pure hits (As It Was being the biggest benefactor of this). Hopefully the 2nd single is catchier though.

Yeah sorry, but this looks like ****. Not that ATRL is some huge brand, but there's no life or pop to anything now. Change the URL to Pop Titans like those no-name forums and nobody would know the difference. Get rid of the corporate gray blob feel and empty space in every section + bring back a compact and more punchy format (way too many round edges and shading). As of right now, each post looks boring and lifeless regardless of content and does nothing to keep people here.

Those Grammy wins completely rewired her brain. More music is always welcomed though, hopefully it's catchy.

Pop music is always on this pendulum where if something is successful, then it's generic and annoying. If it flops, then it's a timeless masterpiece that nobody understands. The acclaim this era gets in stan circles always feels like it's trying to make up for that lack of public approval and thus never talks about its weak points. Miley's current obsession is wanting a layer of mystery and chicness that she thinks she's earned due to Flowers' success (and thus puts her in Beyonce/Gaga/Taylor circles). This is fine to want at this stage of her career as she started at similar times as them, but she doesn't have their consistent output of quality. And thus this era feels too literal in what it goes for (mystery = lyrics that end up saying nothing with bland scenarios, chicness = wearing custom vintage archival gowns). This literalness worked when she was younger as there was a clear passion to convince the public it was honest. And the mystery of her reservedness worked for Flowers since rumors helped get its initial footing. But now we're getting this confusing output that ends up having nothing to say and there's no passion in her promo to sell the work. Secrets, I wanna keep your secrets Like sunlight in the shadows Like footsteps in the grass I won't ever break my promise Like a songbird in the silence Like stones against the glass Love is not a prison I'm not a guard, no So even when I'm holding you I won't lock you up You can come and go as you want Would you like to be lonely? Your word is all I want Empty nothingness. Miley is at her best when she has something to prove as she allows collaborators to refine her work (both lyrically and visually) for her pop fanbase/audiences. The melodies on these songs are repetitive and the production lacks polish. There's potential, but what's seen as 'raw and not caring about a perfect package' is releasing work that gives no reason to come back to it in either its catchiness or messaging. It's been so boring to see this all play out and I hope this phase of her career wraps up soon.

It's a boring nothing-burger song that sounds the same from the first 5 seconds to when it's over. You also can't understand what she's saying. A huge part of music is being able to hum a simple melody or lyrics which this song has none of. God awful mixing. Doja's soft vocals also work best when the instrumental matches that energy, not some snappy repetitive beat that drowns her out.

It's harder to get a hit these days as we don't have a dominating genre and the recent music these men make isn't as catchy/instant as it was before. This forum places too much power in someone falling off because their time is up. Making consistent hits means an artist has to have a strong pulse of music trends and either take their own spin on it or get ahead of the next one (and be able to self criticize enough in order to change what failed before). All of these men are in their 30s and what they think sounds like a hit might work with millennials but not with teenagers of today. Couple that with having yes-men as their support groups and you get lukewarm music. The second any of them get a better grip on what a hit sounds like, it'll do decent (but I don't see that happening for any of them).

I didn't like the album so I'm just not gonna comment. But I agree that this era is a cumulation of many mistakes over the past decade, just like Flowers was the cumulation of many smart decisions. Her album debuted almost half of Addison Rae which means there's absolutely no presence of an opinion on her anymore and people have tuned out (which while bad, it also means she can take control of it if she wants to). Obviously she needs to tour, but doing it now means she'd have to do a nostalgia/legacy tour which makes her feel aged out. I'd rather her focus on building a social presence and funneling that into a comeback that can allow her to tour whatever her current album is without resentment. Miley pretends to not care about success, but she always craves validation and success is part of it. This is a wake up call for her yet again that things to change if she wants to turn things around and I'm hoping she does. Otherwise, it is what it is.

I like it for the most part and 'I just thought we had more to lose' is a strong chorus finisher + the saxophone is great. I think the main thing this struggles with is memorability since the lyrics are just there happening, but you don't get a clear visual in your head of what she's talking about. I stay when the ecstasy is far away And I pray that it's coming 'round again And you say it But I wish it wasn't true Yeah, you're looking like a movie star in a worn out coat So I throw away my pride It happens all the time God, it happens all the time This… means nothing. The song has a straight forward melody, but the lyrics don't match. Compare it to ALY: It's not your fault I ruin everything And it's not your fault I can't be what you need Baby, angels like you can't fly down here with me I'm everything they said I would be Clear, well written, and catchy. This is still a 7/10, but not up there with her best.

It's looking like this will shape up to be a decent hit on its own which the song deserves. The album is another issue as most didn't know ESV was coming out and that was with Flowers being instantly massive. My only downside is that if EOTW ends up persevering, then Miley will 100% be able to convince the label she doesn't need to promote for a song to succeed and we get the same crumbs for the next era. We lose whether she smashes or flops. The era bombing off the face of the earth would've probably forced her to do some type of touring to recoup costs and at this point, I would take that over any hit just so we can see her for one of the last few times in her career.

Even though the song isn't as instant as Flowers, it's still top 20 material at worst. This situation falls more on marketing and the lack of it. Again, she's suffering from years of fanbase neglect (no touring now for 13 years, social media now fully ran by team) while also not doing anything fun to engage casuals to show her personality (no TikToks, no late night interviews). She's still a huge star, but with such a small fanbase, she fully relies on how well her latest topics syncs with the public. There's not much fans can do or say to change things. Beyond all of this, it kinda sucks how all 00s/10s girls besides Taylor enjoy being famous and commit to what it takes to keep it.

These releases were during a time that Miley was active on social media almost hourly and hyper connected to her fans (despite still not touring for years). She had enough fanbase loyalty to push things for a few days because of that. None of those releases are relevant to how she's managed herself post-2022. The main hope for this song is that since it's basically unknown, any positive response it gets (radio/tiktok, if willing) will be good enough as a push. Otherwise, that's pretty much it.

The song/era doing bad isn't that big of a problem, she's flopped many times before. It's the cause of it that makes watching all this so bizarre. The lack of hype built, the 3rd person captions, no fan interactions lined up after just finishing an era with minimal fan interactions, still no tour. When are we getting out of this dark age. Shes happy with this new lifestyle and the music quality is good so whatever. But as a long time fan, it's sad to see her fanbase reduce to nearly 0 from years of this behavior.

The TTH position sucks, but Columbia is quick to react if they see promise. They flooded everything into Flowers after the first week and didn't let up for months. The main issue (and it's already been said) is that she doesn't have enough fans to show promise in the early stages. There's no narrative to this release like Flowers, so the only selling point is the song being good enough that whoever does discover it will replay it. Commercial appeal isn't her only focus given the title track, but this was obviously made to be a hit and they're most likely hesitant after Doctor and UTBY. If this debuts around 3.5-5m and can hold in that range, I think they'll put more into it.

What elevates the song is how her tone actually sounds like nostalgia itself. Her husk can sometimes make things less appealing (softer tones like Billie fit into basically anything), but when it works it really works. She makes this sound straight out of the decade(s) it's influenced by and not many singers her age are able to pull that off. After a few repeats, the flaws of the song aren't too bad actually either (the long bridge).

I like it. I think they should've cut the chorus melody from opening the song as it gets repetitive hearing it a 4th time at the end of the song. She's also a bit hard to understand during the bridge as if the mixing is slurring her around with the echo effect that's through the whole thing (as well as the bridge going on too long and not really building up well to the final chorus). I think it'll be another top 10 for her, but nothing close to how Flowers connected with everyone. Still solid and happy to see she's still trying new things at this stage in her career.