Starting with the matriarchy-oriented “Mother’s Daughter,” Miley Cyrus establishes She Is Coming as her most declaratively “feminist as fuck” album yet. Though it’s not so much album as EP slated to comprise three sections that make up a complete record, with the other two, She Is Here and She Is Everything, forming to create She Is: Miley Cyrus. And who Miley “is,” it would seem, is still a “not a girl, not yet a woman” trope who struggles with being scandalous and having a hopeless devotion to the fun of mood-altering substances.
Despite the public critiques of that struggle (that Cardi B’s “Press” speaks to, hence it making plenty of sense that Miley would sing at one point on “Cattitude,” “I love you Nicki, but I listen to Cardi”), Miley wants everyone to know: “Don’t fuck with my freedom.” This, in addition to praising god or whoever with, “Hallelujah, I’m a freak, I’m a freak, hallelujah.” Likely Liam Hemsworth is thankful for that as well.
Persisting in the exploration and defense of her so-called freakdom on “Unholy,” Miley slows down the tempo a bit with a more piano-driven backing track. As she admits freely to her “unholiness,” she calls out the hypocrisy of anyone who gives her shit for it when they themselves are the same, singing, “I’m a little drunk, I know it/I’ma get high as hell/I’m a little bit unholy/So what? So is everyone else.” And it’s true, one is hard-pressed to find any denizen of the First World not addicted to some form of drug.
Building on this theme is “D.R.E.A.M.” featuring Amy Winehouse favorite Ghostface Killah. The acronym obviously standing for “Drugs Rule Everything Around Me,” this is precisely what Miley announces throughout the chorus of the song. Though this is one of the tracks she has stated is intended to be a reflection on her fraught past, its message also alludes to a society in which everything we’re presented with, whether “actual” drugs or not,” is designed to transform into a metaphorical crack pipe keeping us all complacent as we numb ourselves to the loneliness and meaninglessness.
Lightening the mood is the RuPaul accompanying “Cattitude”–for no other person could be more tailor-made to be featured on such a song title. Accordingly, she immediately begins throwing shade at Miley with, “Bitch, you look like you done already done had yours/You better go take your country-ass indoors/And put some damn clothes on/’Cause don’t nobody need to be seeing all of that/The library is officially open.” But Miley has no issue with being read as she dives into breaking down the spiel of her pussy-appreciating mantra, “If you don’t feel what I’m saying, I don’t fuck with you/Turn up your gratitude, turn down your attitude/I love my pussy, that means I got cattitude.” At one point emulating the signature “Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum-pum-pum” of Missy Elliott’s “Work It,” it’s also clear that cattitude means no longer caring about the easily flung accusation of cultural appropriation.
The fun-loving vibe of “Cattitude” carries over into “Party Up the Street” (for it’s no longer much of a “Party in the U.S.A.”) featuring Swae Lee (also recently featured on Madonna’s “Crave“). A fanciful beat paired with slightly sinister string arrangements lend added tongue-in-cheek flair to the L.A.-centric lyric, “Party up the street, even though there is no place to park.”
Concluding with the countryish twang of “The Most,” Miley digs into the positive effects unconditional love has had on her–and yes, it’s another nod to Hemsworth (much like “Malibu“). The only trouble with being loved unconditionally by another is that it can tend to give you a strange license to treat them like shit. At least that’s the message Miley puts out with lyrics like, “And even when I can’t stay, even when I run away/You love me the most/So why do I hurt you so? Is it ’cause you love me the most?” Veering on the self-deprecating side as she wonders, “I don’t know why you still believe in me,” the song was written soon after she endured the Woolsey fire that raged in Malibu with Hemsworth, watching the wreckage burn their house down and propelling the two to finally get married. For, as Miley stated both clinically and romantically, Hemsworth is her “survival partner.” Maybe this EP can be yours for the summer.
