Move over Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, there’s a new pop star in town with a track that’s somehow even longer than “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” and “Venice Bitch.” And it’s none other than Miley Cyrus with “Lockdown.” Even more clout-laden still is the fact that David Byrne has joined her on the song, which clocks in at thirteen minutes and thirty-one seconds. This now bumps up the length of the original (a.k.a. non-deluxe) version of Something Beautiful from fifty-two minutes and five seconds to sixty-nine minutes and twenty-five seconds. That makes a seventeen-minute, twenty-second difference. In other words, approximately the length of what Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine went from (35:26) after becoming Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead (55:21). The latter featuring five new songs (because also counting the “extended” version of “intro [end of the world]” as six new songs feels inaccurate). Meaning that Miley achieved a “deluxe length” with just two tracks thanks to the robust duration of “Lockdown.”
While some speculated that the track might be about the so-called lockdown that occurred during the pandemic (though it was hardly a “lockdown” in the U.S. compared to the more intense restrictions that other countries imposed), Cyrus’ lyrical motif is instead centered on the notion of a “secret” love. And, since “secrets” are a running theme of the two tracks that appear on the deluxe edition of Something Beautiful, it’s only right that she should mention that word again on “Lockdown,” singing, “I won’t lie, baby, you’re my secret/Oh, your love stays on lockdown.” A phrase not to be confused with what Kanye once said on 2008’s “Love Lockdown,” “So keep your love locked down/Your love locked down.” A.k.a. guard your heart and don’t open it to anyone. Cyrus, in contrast, is trying to keep her relationship both locked down and on lockdown—away from the prying eyes and opinions of others. So it is that she commences the song with the lyrics, “Oh, your love stays on lockdown/Can’t tell my friends, ‘cause they all talk now.” And what they’re likely to talk about is whether or not they “approve” of Cyrus’ romance.
However, it doesn’t take David Byrne (who has been having quite a moment in terms of being embraced by female pop stars [/rockers, depending on who you ask] of a younger generation this year) long to weigh in on the matter from a supportive standpoint. A view that comes from a place of understanding for Cyrus’ situation—her desire to exist in a “love bubble,” as it were. Hence, “I don’t know if it’s day, I don’t know if it’s night/I don’t need to go out, I wanna stay inside/Come on over, love, and we’ll be lost and found/Come on over, love, and we can lock it down/Lock it down, down, down, down, down, down.” After Cyrus then delivers another round of the chorus, the song returns to its more experimental instrumental form. The one hinted at in the beginning, but that wasn’t quite “processed” by the listener due to how quickly Cyrus materialized with her vocals. But by the two-minute mark, the production comes into full focus.
Amid the trippy horns and generally psychedelic aura (to that point, there is definitely something very Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz about “Lockdown”), Cyrus occasionally interjects with some minimal repetition of the same phrases. To create this transportive portion of the track—the part that takes up most of the thirteen minutes and thirty-one seconds—Cyrus clearly needed some co-production assistance. And she got it from Jonathan Rado, Maxx Morando (her still-current boyfriend), Max Taylor-Sheppard and Shawn Everett (with both Everett and Rado in particular working on most of the songs from Something Beautiful).
The musical meandering of “Lockdown” changes tones and tinctures as the track goes on, eventually brought back to where it started around the ten-minute, forty-six-second mark, with Cyrus returning to the kind of vocal delivery that could actually be played on the radio (at least on an “indie” station) as she sings, “You bring out an animal feeling/Why’d you leave me waiting so long?/I’ve been drowning in your love beneath me/Drink my breath away ‘til it’s gone/Put me on your carousel, chandelier/Fairy tale, atmosphere/Marigold, fields of gold/Icon, centerfold/You’re the only one I chose/No one has to know, you know.” And so it is that Cyrus brings back the notion of “secrecy” into it, of keeping her “special relationship” away from anybody else to see, therefore judge (which is probably what would have made it a good song to play during Sex and the City’s “Secret Sex” episode, if only this single had existed at the time).
Byrne then rejoins her to repeat his verse about not knowing if it’s day or night—this being a phrase that captures what it feels like to be caught in a kind of “sex haze” (a.k.a. honeymoon phase) with someone. Locked inside at all hours of the day because you’re still not sick of the other person (or the various orifices they have to offer). Of course, Byrne isn’t exactly referring to this, instead inviting his would-be lover over to join him in feeling lost together so they can, thus, be found (this echoing Addison Rae’s “Lost & Found” interlude on Addison, during which she repeats, “I lost myself and found myself again”).
The length, “unwieldiness” and “incohesiveness” of the song all further point to what Cyrus suggested throughout interviews about Something Beautiful, which is that this might very well be her last attempt at bothering to write an album for the mainstream. Indeed, it’s clear she’s been gagging to go more full-tilt experimental for years (and yes, it all goes back to Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz). Even so, it’s also apparent that Cyrus continues to have a knack for creating “easily accessible” singles like “Secrets” (not to be confused with Madonna’s “Secret”), the first additional track on the deluxe version of Something Beautiful that helps listeners “ease in” more gently to the complexity of “Lockdown.”
Or rather, “complexity” by the current standards of an “average” pop song (which scarcely clocks in at two minutes anymore). Luckily, Cyrus is still toeing the line between both “guises”: “experimental” and mainstream pop icon. Thereby making those who know and prefer her in the latter incarnation more amenable not just to her in the former incarnation, but also to the former genre itself.
