Review: Miley Cyrus - ATTENTION: MILEY LIVE
Miley Cyrus
ATTENTION:
MILEY LIVE
A testament to the live force Miley Cyrus has become
Miley Cyrus gave fans just a couple of days notice before the surprise arrival of her first-ever live album. Appearing off the back of a series of landmark festival headlining sets, ‘ATTENTION: MILEY LIVE’ is a testament to the live force Miley Cyrus has become even if it is missing a few memorable landmark moments.
'Can I have your attention?' asks Cyrus on the album's previously unreleased opening track. For the following 90 minutes, she effortlessly grasps it, not once letting you go. The assorted collection (Most of which, is taken from her LA Super Bowl warm-up performance) kicks off impressively strong with ‘We Can’t Stop'. The track, which marked her transformation from pop princess to the Cyrus we know to date (brilliantly outspoken and full of personality) is the perfect launching point.
Delightfully, the track is combined with a spectacular rendition of The Pixies ‘Where Is My Mind’. Outrageously, this is the only veer the record makes into Cyrus’s known adoration of Heavy Rock and Metal. Her rockier live edge is what made her Glastonbury performance in 2019 so iconic (her brilliant live rendition of ‘Old Town Road’ with her father Billy Ray and Lil Nas X from the same event is also sadly missing). It certainly feels criminal how underused this side of her repertoire is on the live collection. Although the aforementioned Pixies track truly is glorious.
It doesn’t take long for the casual listener to realise this collection has been put together with her fans in mind first and foremost. The album collects a vast amount of beloved deep cuts (Cyrus herself had heavily involved fans in her recent live setlists for this exact reason) from across her various ‘eras’ in music.
Admittedly, with this comes a risk that anyone who wasn't a dedicated Cyrus fan diehard would be put-off by the album. In fact, tracks such as 2015’s ‘Dooo It’ from her arguably overlooked, experimental ‘Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz’ album left me yearning to revisit her discography once more. This time with reflective and grateful ears. Likewise, ‘7 Things’ from 2008s ‘Breakout’ shows the pure pop brilliance of Cyrus’s youthful early work.
This brings me back to the surprising omission of material, which in recent years, has cemented Cyrus as such a brilliant live performer. Not a single track from her 2019 resurgence is featured here. There is nothing from the exceptional ‘She Is Coming’ EP, the sensational standalone ‘Slide Away’ is also absent, as is any nod to her star turn in Black Mirror as the fictional alter-ego Ashley O.
It’s a credit to Cyrus’s ability as a live performer that without the intense crowd adoration (which adds to the charm of the album), you could forget the tracks were captured from live recordings. Crowd chatter is kept to a minimum, apart from an emotional and quite vulnerable speech halfway through, in which Cyrus admits to anxieties returning to the stage post-Covid. There is a lot of heart inside the album, and Cyrus frequently comes off as very endearing during her few but memorable interactions with her audience.
Whilst as mentioned previously, her full-on metal mode is only teased. There are some terrific covers nonetheless. ‘Jolene’, made famous by her godmother, music legend Dolly Parton more than lives up to the original, whilst her rendition of ‘Like A Prayer’ is majestic. ‘Attention’ perhaps alludes at points to the fact Cyrus is yet to have that one big landmark hit. Closing trio ‘The Climb’, ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘Party In The USA’ are all defining and spectacular moments in her career done justice here, yet you feel we are not far away now from Cyrus finding that magic moment and releasing a masterpiece single of her own. One that encapsulates all eras rather than is a crowning jewel of a specific moment in her career. It's a small but crucial difference.
Ultimately ‘Attention’ is a truly terrific live album that cements Cyrus as one of the finest live pop performers on the planet right now. Whilst fan service on the record is high, hopefully, it will implore casual listeners to dive deeper into her discography. This listener, however, is just left slightly wanting for her 2019 glory days to get the justice they deserve. Perhaps with an on-trend deluxe edition please Miley?