Miley Cyrus released her tenth studio album, Bass Persuades, on Friday through Atlantic Records — the first record she has put out under a new, single-word artist name, Miley. The ten-track album, running a lean 38 minutes, marks a hard swerve toward dance-pop after a run of albums built around classic-rock guitars and radio-ready balladry.
Cyrus began using the mononym publicly on August 31, with the album announcement following a day later. She produced the record with Kid Harpoon, Michael Pollack and her fiancé, Maxx Morando, who also plays in her touring band and is credited as a writer on much of the tracklist, which includes "Different Religion" (featuring the band Model/Actriz), "Let's Get Married," "Orbit" and "Neon Signs" (featuring Andrew Wyatt). The title track arrived as the lead single on September 3; a video for "Let's Get Married" followed on the eve of the album's release.
A New Name, and What Cyrus Calls a Love Story
Cyrus has described Bass Persuades as inseparable from her relationship with Morando, whom she got engaged to this year, layering songs about romantic devotion with others about self-acceptance and, on the title track, the pull of music itself as something to lose yourself in rather than scroll past.
Music takes hold of us. We feel it, sing it, sometimes dance to it, let it out and carry on. It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong. Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between.
Miley Cyrus, in a statement accompanying the album's announcement
The pivot to dance-pop follows two of the biggest records of Cyrus's career: 2023's Endless Summer Vacation, powered by the Grammy-winning single "Flowers," and last year's Something Beautiful. Both leaned on rock and soul textures; Bass Persuades instead chases the club, arriving in the same year critics have debated whether pop's dance-floor moment — kicked off in part by Charli XCX's Brat — has already crested.
Critics Split on the Dance-Floor Gambit
The reception so far is mixed. Variety described Cyrus as leading a "dance revolution" with the record's steamier, more physical turn. Other outlets were cooler. Riff Magazine's review, which scored the album 6 out of 10, argued the record undercuts its own premise.
The successes ultimately outweigh the misses. But Bass Persuades opens by making a case for getting people back onto the dance floor, only to spend much of the album wandering away from it.
Riff Magazine album review
Several reviewers singled out the same tension: the album's strongest moments, they argue, come when Cyrus leans into stranger, more experimental production choices rather than straightforward pop-club songwriting — a criticism that has followed dance-pop pivots by other established stars this year. Fan and critic reaction on streaming and social platforms has been active since the title track's release, with this week's New Music Friday slate also including new albums from beabadoobee, Carly Rae Jepsen and Beck.
Cyrus has not commented publicly on the reviews. Atlantic Records has not released first-week sales projections, though Bass Persuades is expected to debut inside the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 given Cyrus's streaming base and the promotional push around the mononym rebrand.
What's Next
Cyrus will play two nights at the Hollywood Bowl on October 16 and 18 in support of the album, with Model/Actriz — who guest on "Different Religion" — opening both shows. Those dates will offer the first live test of how the new material, several tracks of which lean more toward mid-tempo synth balladry than pure dance-pop, translates outside the studio.
