Single Review: Miley Cyrus – ‘Adore You’
2 min read
With 2013 being the year of Miley Cyrus, any career move since the VMA’s is expected to be riddled with indecencies worthy of a parent’s nightmares. As the third single released off her latest album Bangerz, Adore You is a curveball of sombre sweetness among an album otherwise tailored for party playlists. Unlike most of Miley Cyrus’ promiscuous moves, Adore You offers a vulnerable innocence that we haven’t seen in Miley since her Disney days.
Miley’s voice is natural and stripped back. She changes notes as effortlessly as the violin strings accompanying her, which is why it’s such a shame the words she’s singing are boringly repetitive. The lyrics “When you say you love me, know I love you more” make up about 75% of the song, and it seems so generalised so as to relate to a wider audience. Sure, a lot of pop music does this; but this one just doesn’t have a catchy enough tune to back it up.
Unlike her chart hitters We Can’t Stop or Wrecking Ball, which have beats worthy of a ring tone, Adore You falls short of a soul baring ballad and simultaneously out of range for a hit pop song, entering the realm of discarded songs that are forgotten about before the month’s out. The only real ‘hook’ in the song is when she sings a fragmented “adore y-o-o-o-u-u”, and that’s only two words relying on an addition of heavy violin for a change of pace. Strategic placement of a symphony just doesn’t lend the ballad kick it intends, and panders out to repetitive lyrics and a drum beat to match.
It’s important not to consume this within the mindset of her only as a foam hand sexual assaulter, or a racially insensitive nude enthusiast. The only context relevant is the fact that while Miley’s made it big, she also lost her fiancé in the process. Regardless of your view of her, the girl deserves an extra star, merely for having to sing “we’re meant to be together in holy matrimony” months after a broken engagement. Awkward.
