Miley Cyrus has released the first two songs from Something Beautiful, sharing her upcoming visual album’s “Prelude” and title track Monday morning (March 31).
As indicated by its title, “Prelude” — the video for which dropped just a couple hours before “Something Beautiful” on Monday morning — finds the pop star setting up the themes of her May 30-slated LP. As bright shots of shadows dancing over flowers flash in and out over an intensifying orchestral soundscape, Cyrus ponders existential thoughts in a spoken-word format.
“Like when following an image from a train, your eyes can’t keep the passing landscapes from being swallowed into endless distance,” she says. “Like when holding a fistful of ashes, your hands can’t save the things that have already been dissolved into air.”
The theatrical visual culminates in a shot of Cyrus staring at the camera with a pained expression on her face, modeling the crystal Thierry Mugler headpiece she wears on Something Beautiful‘s album cover. “The beauty one finds alone is a prayer that longs to be shared,” she tells viewers as the string and brass sounds crescendo.
After letting “Prelude” percolate with fans for a couple of hours, Cyrus followed it up with “Something Beautiful,” which finds her marching into a warehouse in a furry green jacket and singing over a slinky bass line: “Tell me something beautiful tonight until your lips turn blue/ Said I don’t wanna talk about it for too long, baby now I think I do.”
Starting out deceptively chill, the song eventually devolves into a pace-shifting odyssey marked by distorted electric guitar and the “Wrecking Ball” singer’s powerful vocals. As the song climaxes, stage lights in the warehouse burst and rain showers down on her and her band.
Something Beautiful will feature 13 new songs accompanied by more visuals with cinematography by Benoît Debie. Last week, Cyrus teased the project in a trailer that heralded it as a “one of a kind pop opera” as well as a “unique visual experience fueled by fantasy.”
The Hannah Montana alum hasn’t released an album since 2023’s Endless Summer Vacation, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the eight-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Flowers.” The track also earned Cyrus her first-ever Grammys by taking home record of the year and best pop solo performance at the 2024 awards.
Cyrus has long been teasing that her upcoming record would double as a visual album. In a November interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she revealed that she was taking inspiration from Pink Floyd’s The Wall — just with a “better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture” — and noted that “the visual component of [my album] is driving the sound.”
“It was important for me that every song has these healing sound properties,” she added at the time. “The songs, whether they’re about destruction or heartbreak or death, they’re presented in a way that is beautiful, because the nastiest times of our life do have a point of beauty.”
Watch Cyrus’ new “Prelude” video above and check out “Something Beautiful” below.
This story originally appeared on Billboard
