The Unknowable Miley Cyrus
By 2017, Cyrus was covering her tattoos with makeup, wearing all white, and singing ballads of marital devotion. The video for “Malibu,” a single from the album “Younger Now,” shows Cyrus, then engaged to the actor Liam Hemsworth (they were married for eight months, between 2018 and 2019), on the beach, twirling in Pollyannaish ecstasy, her hair tousled by the sea breeze. She marvels at the ocean: “I never went boatin’, don’t get how they’re floatin’,” she sings, her voice full and trembly, “And sometimes I get so scared of what I can’t understand.” She released three more albums between 2020 and 2025, experimenting with indie rock and glam rock; on the single “Flowers,” the best-selling song of 2023, her sound is, by turns, folksy, retro, and disco-pop. “I can buy myself flowers,” she proclaims, “Write my name in the sand / Talk to myself for hours / Say things you don’t understand.” I loved the confidence and ease of “Flowers”—it has the enticing swagger of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” two …


