Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus

Bangerz

(RCA)

To speak in the same breath about the videos for Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U and Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball is like equating the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa with the botox grin of a so-called celeb on the cover of Heat. As for the song itself, what it lacks in… well, everything, it only makes up for in bombast. Actually, that infamous Wrecking Ball promo and Cyrus's online viral antics at the MTV Awards are necessary tools: without them, given the amount of production overkill and Auto-Tuning across the album, you wouldn't be able to tell who was doing the singing. The fact that Britney Spears appears on one track is evidence that Cyrus is being packaged as the latest dirtied-up Disney princess in a cynically choreographed move. However, a rich white girl swearing like a black rapper doesn't automatically win street cred; neither do lyrics such as 4x4 ("I'm a female rebel, can't you tell… Driving so fast, 'bout to piss on myself"). Worst album of the year by a Billy Ray Cyrus country mile.

Alan Morrison