Endless Summer Vacation sums itself up pretty well: you can hear Miley Cyrus enjoying herself with the pop-rock guitars and (usually) upbeat, summery tracks. It’s fun. It’s light. But it’s also lyrically rich.

    Her vocals feel stronger than ever, with just the right amount of rasp, which has become a Miley Cyrus signature. “Jaded” is a perfect showcase of how far she can push her voice, but it’s not over-the-top.

    Contrary to her previous album, Plastic Hearts, which was full of edgy, but justified angst, Endless Summer Vacation channels all of it into a more empowered, care-free path. On the smash lead single, “Flowers”, this is especially noticeable: “I can take myself dancing/And I can hold my own hand/Yeah, I can love myself better than you can.” Cyrus sings.

    Although Endless Summer Vacation embodies an amalgamation of just about every genre Cyrus has already nailed, “Handstand” is an interesting contribution- if you slipped it into any recent work of the electronic songstress Grimes, it’d be hard to notice- it’s got hyper-pop influences with its own playful, Cyrus spin.

    The standout track is “Rose Colored Lenses”. In fact, you can feel them fall over your eyes while Cyrus reminisces over teenage love, locational memories, and the power of nostalgia: “We could stay like this forever/Lost in wonderland/With our hands above the clouds/Fallin’ stupid like we’re kids,” she proclaims.

    A less enjoyable track (significantly so) is “Muddy Waters”, an assertive, vengeful collab with Sia. The lyrics are repetitive and come off a lot less seriously than they take themselves, only amplified by an excess of profanity in every verse and chorus.

    While just about every track on Endless Summer Vacation is an enjoyable listen start to end, we can imagine blowing out the bass of your car on a humid summer night to “River” or “Wildcard” will only accentuate the exact mindset Miley Cyrus put herself in to create her 10th, and perhaps artist-defining studio album.

Grade: A

Photo Credits: Miley Cyrus 

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