Miley Cyrus has made a career out of doing whatever she wants, and on Endless Summer Vacation, it's growing up and moving on. Framed by the concept of a day and night in Los Angeles, this is a mature album in the best sense of the word; like a good relationship, it's smooth, but not dull, grounded in resilience and self-love. Cyrus attempted a similar mindset on Younger Now, but this time it feels more genuine. She's grown into this mood, starting with her voice, which imbues these songs with significant emotional depth. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the album's opening track and massive hit single, "Flowers." Over a poised fusion of vintage soft rock, disco, and 2020s pop, Cyrus' richly raspy delivery carries the pain, healing, and strength of forgiving a former lover while acknowledging that being alone is better. It's one of her finest moments, with a low-key confidence that feels truer because she's not shouting -- she's worlds away from the devastation of "Wrecking Ball." Starting Endless Summer Vacation with "Flowers" shows how much her artistry has developed even since Plastic Hearts. There's more genuine sweetness in Cyrus' music than in some time, particularly on "Rose Colored Lenses," which spins a swooning fantasy of a perfect day, complete with bubbly saxophones and harpsichord flourishes. She's grown into a remarkably candid songwriter, able to capture a relationship's power dynamic in a single line on "Wildcard" ("Go and meet your mom/In a dress too tight"), while finding the sweet spot between independence and self-destruction. Though Endless Summer Vacation has fewer collaborations than Plastic Hearts, they're just as well chosen. Brandi Carlile's silky harmonies are the perfect backdrop for Cyrus' twangy wanderlust meditations on "Thousand Miles," and Sia adds extra firepower to "Muddy Feet"'s gospel-inflected takedown of a cheater. While Endless Summer Vacation's first half is so consistent that it's tempting to want to spend more time with the witty, self-aware Miley it presents, the album's later songs prove she's not playing it too safe. She could probably spend her entire career singing songs like the piano ballad "Wonder Woman" or "You," a torchy slow dance for slightly reformed hedonists, but Vacation is all the richer thanks to curveballs like the country-meets-dance-pop of "River" or "Handstand," a piece of fever-dream synth pop that proves the instinct that sparked Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz is still within her. Cyrus will probably never settle on just one or two sounds to express herself, but her voice and vision are strong enough on Endless Summer Vacation to suggest she'll never need to.
Heather Phares. Allmusic.com
