Music
Miley Cyrus Announces A "Psychedelic" 2025 Visual Album
It’s being described as “more experimental than anything she’s ever done.”
After the mainstream success of her endless summer vacation, Miley Cyrus is ready to get weird with her next release. The superstar recently announced her upcoming album, which is slated to drop in 2025. The record, which will be Cyrus’ first visual album, is already being called the most experimental thing she has ever done. And hearing what inspired the work, it’s not hard to understand why that might be.
Cyrus first spoke about her ninth studio album in a Nov. 20 Harper’s Bazaar profile. She used the words “hypnotizing and glamorous” to describe the visual album’s aesthetic, adding that she wants the release to heal society right now. “It’s a concept album that’s an attempt to medicate somewhat of a sick culture through music,” Cyrus said.
One of the main influences is the 2018 Nicolas Cage-starring horror movie Mandy, in which a grieving war veteran exacts revenge on the cult that killed his girlfriend. Citing it as one of her favorite movies ever, Cyrus initially reached out to Mandy’s director Panos Cosmatos with the idea to remake it as a musical. When that didn’t pan out, Cyrus began working with Cosmatos to craft this new visual album.
“[The album is] more experimental than anything she’s ever done, but in a pop way that I love,” Cosmatos said.
Psychedelia is clearly at the core of the record. The other major inspiration for the project is Pink Floyd’s surrealist musical film The Wall. “I have this heart-first attachment to it,” Cyrus said, revealing she first saw the movie as a teenager with her brother. “My idea was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”
“I would like to be a human psychedelic for people,” Cyrus continued. “I don’t want anyone trying to be like me or imitate me or even be inspired by me. I want to impact frequencies in your body that make you vibrate at a different level.”
