Younger Now

Just as things seem a little promising, the limp “Thinkin'” struts in like a Carrie Underwood c-side and firmly sets the tone for the record’s toothless closing third.

This is a thumpingly disappointing and consistently milquetoast set of songs riddled with lyrical banality, done-to-death melodies and wispily thin production.

On Younger Now she is fully her father Billy Ray’s daughter, leaning into the echoey twang of spaghetti-Western stomper “Bad Mood,” rhapsodizing about dirty feet and backyard creeks on “Inspired,” and duetting blithely with godmother Dolly Parton on the summer-­camp jamboree “Rainbowland.”

Cyrus’ self-styled country album might be the most weakly considered event record of the year, with lumpy melodies, slapdash rhythms and lyrics that border on self-parody (and not in the way that Nashville’s finest know how to do).

Who knows which Miley Cyrus will emerge after the rootsy and real Younger Now, but we recommend enjoying Country Miley for as long as she lasts.

Younger Now blends pop-rock and pablum country fare that is so restrained, so thinly produced, it seems like her lovably goofy personality was hobbled throughout the recording process.

The one redeeming quality behind this whole project is Cyrus’ twangy voice, which saves this project from being entirely pointless. In her lower registers, Cyrus draws you into her husk and warmth. It is in these moments she reveals the traces of an artist who otherwise remains absent from this album.

The songs are deliberately low-affect, if short on personality compared to her other albums. But the attention-getter is the finale "Inspired," where she writes a folksy country ballad to express some of her fears about climate change, with the opening lines, "I'm writing down my dreams/All I'd like to see/Starting with the bees." In this context, it's refreshing to hear from the Old Weird Miley again.

It's the sound of a promising young singer who tried and failed to produce compelling music on the margins, turning back and self-consciously striking a more conservative pose. It's not as interesting a story, maybe, but it's also not as problematic.

Where her past albums felt messy but painfully sincere, Younger Now comes off as safe and overly sanitized, with the frisson that made Cyrus a star all but entirely blasted away. ... Still, the album has some plainly good songs.

At its worst, Younger Now is inoffensively bland, wasted Dolly Parton talent aside. Songs like "Love Someone" are dead on arrival with their lifeless energy and forgettable hooks.

Cyrus’ voice has scarcely been more expressive, and there’s no question that she means what she sings. That said, you might long for a more inspired metaphor (or eight).

Sshe has taken control of the songwriting and production and emerges as a conservative, big-lunged, country-tinged pop star with songs about breaking free. ... It’s all really rather lovely, although too soon to know whether this, finally, is the “real” Miley standing up.

In truth, the move towards country music made on Younger Now is fraught with potholes that she and producer Oren Yoel rarely manage to avoid. The main problem is the half-heartedness of the move.

Younger Now isn’t a failure exactly--just the sound of Cyrus, or her record company, panicking and hitting “reset.”