Monday the 31st of August Wal Mart releases a so called EP of Miley Cyrus, named Times Of Our Lives. It isn’t quite an album, it’ isn’t a single but it is in between. Though with seven songs and a bit over 26 minutes of play time it’s getting quite close to what some artists consider to be a full album. Tims Of Our Lives is basically a way of promoting the clothing line Miley Cyrus has launched with Max Azria at Wal Mart. Though it’s not like they did a half-ass job of it, they put some energy into it though Miley herself doesn’t really seem to have had writing involvement.
The selection of songs is a bit odd though. It starts of with a cover of an Ashlee Simpson song, Kicking and Screaming. Why? I don’t know, it doesn’t seem that special. Guess they wanted to put it on there to get a bit of a rock thing on there. It’s best to disregard that song and the last song on the EP, which is a live version of Before the Storm. It only really shows that Miley can sing live and that Nick Jonas has a long career ahead of him in soft core porn movies.
You’re left with five songs now which can be split on two. There are three songs which can be put in the pop section, lead by her biggest hit to date Party in the USA (going by chart performance in that case). The other two are Time Of Our Lives and Talk Is Cheap, of all the pop songs can be said that they’re actually quite good though also nothing that special. Though the main requirement for that seems to be that the songs are catchy and that they are. Talk Is Cheap has a rather odd chorus where Miley’s voice is morphed slightly and basically only making sounds instead of singing. Not something I would like to hear again from Miley but it fits the song. Also find the mention of smoking in the song rather odd but maybe that’s just me.
Now we get to the odd part of the album, the other songs would suggest that there isn’t really anything special on it. There however are two ballads on the EP, When I Look At You and Obsessed. The strange thing about When I Look At You is that it’s off the soundtrack for The Last Song, a movie which doesn’t come out until January. The thing with both songs is that they show that Miley has what it takes to last in the business. She has the voice to sing those songs and she has a sound of her own. I hate to use the term country twang but it is there. Those are also the songs which have a wider appeal and don’t become old or overplayed after a couple of weeks on the radio.
Miley herself stated in a blog that this is also the kind of music she wants to make, these are the songs she is proud of. She doesn’t just want to do generic pop she wants to do more meaningful songs. Next year she comes out with a new album which should see much more writing involvement from her end. Does this EP mean anything in her career? Well it confirms that she’s still developing as an artist, I would in fact state that she is years ahead of her peers in that department. Demi Lovato is probably the closest thing to her but she’s not quite at Miley’s level yet. I won’t even mention people like Selena Gomez seeing I don’t take those efforts seriously (though she will come out with an album in a month and I will review it).
So now to rate the thing. It is sort of hard to judge an EP because there aren’t that many songs to rate but seeing that they still managed to get a balanced list of songs within only seven tracks it’s quite good. It does tell us that the future for Miley is in songs like When I Look At You and Obsessed (though hopefully with some other stuff mixed in there). So as far as rating goes it’s four out of five for Miley. I’m hoping for much more on her album next year (no pressure, Miley).
Tags: Miley Cyrus
