Miley Cyrus – “Slide Away”

Miley Cyrus – “Slide Away”

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth aren’t together anymore. The pop star and the actor — who got married last December after a tempestuous on-and-off relationship that goes back years — had just gotten married this past December. This past weekend, they announced that they were separating. In the time since they went public with their breakup, people close to Cyrus have told TMZ that Hemsworth’s drinking and drugging were what doomed the relationship, while Hemsworth’s camp has said that Cyrus cheated on Hemsworth. In any case, Cyrus has already been photographed with someone else. And today, Cyrus has released the new song “Slide Away,” a soul-wrecked power ballad that sure seems to be about the breakup.

Lyrically, “Slide Away” sure seems to build on that narrative of substance problems dooming a relationship. The cover shows bottles and pills floating in water, and on the song, Cyrus sings, “I want my house in the hills / Don’t want the whiskey and pills.” She also growls a few rough and pointed lines about relationships ending: “Once upon a time, it was made for us / Woke up one day, it had turned to dust / Baby, we were found, but now we’re lost / So it’s time to let it go,” “Move on, we’re not 17 / I’m not who I used to be.”

Lyrically and musically, “Slide Away” echoes Cyrus’ 2013 hit “Wrecking Ball” — her only #1 single as of right now. Like “Wrecking Ball,” “Slide Away” is a streamlined, mega-sized power ballad that seems to be about Liam Hemsworth. And like “Wrecking Ball,” “Slide Away” is awfully effective. It weaponizes Cyrus’ raw, bluesy rasp, and it relies on expert producers — in this case, rap hitmaker Mike Will Made-It and Miike Snow frontman Andrew Wyatt — to build a huge, satisfying pop base for all this soap-opera drama. So: Good song! Listen to it below.

“Slide Away” is out now on the streaming services. Cyrus also released the She Is Coming EP a few months ago, but that already seems like a distant memory.

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