If there’s one thing Miley Cyrus is good at, it’s a hard pivot. After earning her first-ever Grammys for the pop hit “Flowers,” Cyrus is going in a totally different direction for her upcoming album Something Beautiful. On Monday, she dropped the title track ahead of the full-length record, which hits shelves May 30, and the accompanying film, due out in June. Safe to say she’s got plenty of surprises hidden up her couture sleeves, but for now, the explosive “Something Beautiful” music video provides a hard pivot of its own.
“Something Beautiful” starts out as a romantic slow jam: “Tell me somethin’ beautiful, yeah, tonight/Until your lips turn blue/Said I don’t wanna talk about it for too long/Baby, now I think I do,” Cyrus sings. But when the chorus hits, it really hits, literally exploding the studio around her. The discordant sound has a jolting hard rock edge reminiscent of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” or something by Pink Floyd—appropriate, as Cyrus’ idea for the visual album was “The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”
In addition to the “Something Beautiful” music video, Monday also saw the release of the video for “Prelude,” the first song on the album. In it, Cyrus delivers a poetic monologue over an almost Lynchian soundtrack. She lists several isolating analogies— “Like walking alone through a lucid dream/Like saying your name aloud in an empty room/Like witnessing my body standing in a mirror”—before concluding that “the beauty one finds alone/Is a prayer that longs to be shared.”
According to Cyrus’ social media, her “Prelude” outfit is archival 1997 Thierry Mugler couture while the “Something Beautiful” look is an original custom design by Casey Cadwallader for the House of Mugler. Fashion was a significant inspiration for the album; Cyrus previously said that when working with co-producer Shawn Everett, she would “show him a painting or a dress, and I’ll tell him to convey those colors or that fabric with sound.” Sharing the trailer for the upcoming film—described as “a one of a kind pop opera”—the announcement promised Something Beautiful “will showcase Miley in a striking visual narrative, featuring archival Thierry Mugler couture, Jean Paul Gaultier, custom Alexander McQueen, and Alaïa.” (Cyris co-directs the film with Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter, with cinematography by Benoît Debie.) The sound may herald a bold new era, but the fashion-forward aesthetic is classic Miley Cyrus.