A week ago, Miley Cyrus got the news she had been waiting for: Bass Persuades, her 10th studio album and her first on Atlantic Records after leaving Sony, had reached No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart.
It had been 13 years since that last happened. Back then, Bangerz did more than cement Cyrus as one of the biggest pop stars in the world. It completed her transformation from a semi-wholesome child star into a superstar unafraid of provocative performances and songs about sex and MDMA.
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Miley Cyrus at the launch of her new album
(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Atlantic Records)
But the neat “full-circle” narrative is more deceptive than it looks. Cyrus reached No. 1 this time with sales and streaming equivalent to 61,000 album units. By comparison, her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation opened with 119,000 units, nearly twice as many, and still managed only third place.
That album also arrived with a monster hit, "Flowers," which went to No. 1 in the United States, dominated streaming services and earned Cyrus a Grammy for Record of the Year.
This time, the album’s opening track and title song was released as a single and climbed only as high as No. 35 in the U.S. Based on its momentum on streaming platforms, it does not appear to be developing a life of its own, much less gathering enough force for a major chart surge.
And in what has been an unusually weak year for the charts, with the U.S. No. 1 effectively occupied for half a year, an artist with Cyrus’ hitmaking history might have expected her bass to be a little more persuasive.
The drama behind the scenes
The past decade of Cyrus’ career has been anything but stable. She caught the revival of country music in the U.S. early with "Younger Now" and the hit "Malibu," only to pivot toward rock on the following album with mixed results, then return to pop with the explosion of "Flowers" before kicking that formula away again with Something Beautiful, released in June 2025.
That album’s disappointing performance helps explain why Cyrus rushed out another record a little more than a year later.
Brandi, Miley and Tish Cyrus at Miley’s Walk of Fame star ceremony
(Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, family drama was unfolding behind the scenes. In 2022, Cyrus’ father, country star Billy Ray Cyrus, separated from her mother, Tish, after three decades together.
The split reportedly created tensions within the family, one of the most public signs being Miley’s omission of her father’s name from her Grammy acceptance speech for "Flowers." Cyrus herself later admitted that her initial reaction had been anything but calm, though nearly three years later she spoke of coming to terms with the situation.
Her mother married actor Dominic Purcell, while her father began a relationship with model Elizabeth Hurley. “I’m handling it like an adult,” Cyrus said in May 2025, after admitting that she had “taken my mom’s pain as my own.”
Her gesture of reconciliation toward her father came in the song "Secrets," featuring Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, one of Billy Ray’s favorite bands. Yet the family telenovela does not appear to be entirely over. Cyrus launched the campaign for her current album with a decision to drop her surname from public appearances. These days, she is simply “Miley.”
Her father, apparently well aware of how the move might look against the backdrop of the various reports surrounding the family, responded with a post describing it as a “natural evolution for a legendary superstar and icon.” Perhaps another superlative would have made it sound even less convincing.
The new album also includes "Innocent Ways," a song that sounds very much as though it is about Cyrus’ younger sister, Noah, and the difficulties she has faced.
“I wish better for my sister,” Cyrus sings, describing late-night calls and a mind spinning for “eight nights straight.” One wonders what their next phone conversation will sound like.
Does the future look brighter?
Despite the upheaval in her life, Cyrus’ first album simply as Miley does not reveal a new artistic face or an especially distinctive creative vision, even with its attempt at a slightly more metallic, industrial and less sugary sound.
Like 2020’s Plastic Hearts, Bass Persuades carries a faint sense of artificiality and borrowed identity. Several songs echo other pop stars too closely, with the title track recalling Lady Gaga’s latest album and "Neon Signs" bringing to mind Sabrina Carpenter’s "Manchild."
By contrast, "Different Religion" is the most interesting song Cyrus has released in years. Her collaboration with Cole Haden, the hypnotic frontman of experimental indie group Model/Actriz, shows both excellent taste and an ability to bring that taste successfully into her own world.
It is a shame the same cannot be said for much of the rest of the album, which fades from memory rather quickly. Still, Cyrus’ current phase may simply be a bridge toward something stronger.
She remains a prominent name among those being discussed as possible performers at this year’s Super Bowl in California, while two Los Angeles shows next week are fueling speculation that she may finally return to a more regular touring schedule, about five years after the end of her last tour.
And above all, 2027 will mark 20 years since Cyrus’ debut album, released when she was still a teenager thriving on the Britney Spears career track. Since then, she has survived cultural, technological and personal revolutions that would have swallowed many pop careers whole.
If the bass is not entirely persuasive, the track record so far certainly is.