Miley Cyrus surprised the audience at the Video Music Awards on Aug. 30 by releasing her new, free album titled “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” onto Soundcloud. The album consists of 23 tracks that range from simple piano melodies to electronic, upbeat music. We found the album to be less than edgy, and confusing instead of original. As an activist, Cyrus could develop her music into something deeper and more meaningful, as exemplified in the “Backyard Sessions” that she presents on Youtube.

It has taken Cyrus some time to transition from Disney child star to provocative pop idol. To understand the full impact — or lack of impact — of her album, its helps to understand the history of her transformation.

Cyrus first made her appearance in the spotlight when she was selected to play the role of Miley Stewart in the hit Disney Channel Show Hannah Montana. In the show, Cyrus sang various songs from “Nobody’s Perfect” to “The Best of Both Worlds,” both upbeat, pop songs with catchy tunes to dance and sing-a-long to. Her Hannah Montana image depicted her as an innocent and perfect teenager, a role model many young girls looked up to. But, it was clear after Cyrus released her 2009 single “Party in the USA” that she did not want to attain this image. Since then, she has released “Bangerz” which include popular songs like “Wrecking Ball” and “We Can’t Stop.”

Cyrus also founded the The Happy Hippie campaign whose mission statement is ” to rally young people to face injustice facing homeless youth, LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable populations,” according to The Happy Hippie Foundation website. In May 2015, Cyrus released many videos called “Backyard Sessions” in support of The Happy Hippie Campaign. The “Backyard Sessions” include songs that Cyrus sings in her backyard in order to raise awareness of her campaign, as well as to get viewers to donate money. She also invited guest singers like Ariana Grande to come and sing with her.

Cyrus has caused a lot of uproar in recent events, such as her controversial Music Television host performance, and as well as how she generally displays herself in public wearing barely any clothes.

Although she is known for the hit pop songs she did in the past, Cyrus expands her musical range in “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” by adding aspects of synthpop, alternative pop, and psychedelic pop and rock.

When we first read the album’s title, a lot of questions came to mind. Why is it about dead pets? And why on earth is pets spelled “petz”? But then we remembered that this is Miley Cyrus, an artist whose rebellious image is enhanced by the controversy she creates. The album just enforces the fact that Cyrus has transitioned into an outspoken adult with wacky ideas.

We were both pleasantly surprised and disturbed by the 23 songs that we listened to on this track. The emotions we felt ranged from happy to sad to flat-out confused. However, we would bet someone $10 that this will be no Grammy Award winning album and will definitely not have a hit single on the radio, hence why we believe that her album is dead. The songs try to be unique, but fall flat because they are hard to understand.

Here are some noteworthy songs that caught our attention:

Warning: These songs contain explicit lyrics. 

“Dooo It!”:

We are speechless, and not in a good way. This is the song that Cyrus ended the VMAs with and announced the release of her new album. We advise you not to listen to this song (although that probably means you are going to go listen to it now). We suggest using the song as an alarm to wake you up, it’s jarring enough to force the most heavy sleeper out of bed. Why? Well, the song consists of Miley and another voice stringing together random phrases in a sleepy tone. The vocals are accompanied by a techno beat that increases in volume, and instead of complimenting the voices, it clashes with the other sounds.

“Miley Tibetan Bowlzzz”:

This song is a mere 45 seconds. It has no words in it, and instead Cyrus wails random song notes. You can interpret this as either artistic or the complete opposite, it is up to you. Throughout the entire song gentle strings accompany Cyrus’ voice, creating an overall mystical effect. The problem is that there is not a lot of diversity, the song seems monotone, and there’s no catchy tune to follow. It is, however, a good song if you want to meditate or do some peaceful contemplation.

“Pablow the Blowfish”:

The title of her album makes the most sense when you listen to this track, “Pablow the Blowfish.” Initially, the tune of the song was nice, but as we listened to the words, we discovered that it was… well, interesting. Cyrus’ lyrics illustrate the story and relationship that she has with a blowfish named Pablow. Not Pablo, but Pablow. She goes on to talk about how emotionally attached she is to this fish. In fact, she gets so deeply invested in the song that she breaks down into tears towards the end. It is probably the most bizarre song we have ever heard. If you took out the lyrics, you would find this song to be extremely touching and personal. Not to say that losing a fish isn’t a critical and emotional event, but wow, she really loved Pablow. There is a soft piano accompaniment to Cyrus’ slow voice, which is actually quite soft and pleasant to listen to. Beware: the song ends with a clash of keys, so make sure to turn the volume down, because we were very startled.

“BB Talk”:

BB Talk is literally Cyrus talking, with a beat accompanying her in the background. She’s talking about some guy who used to be in her life. You can actually learn a lot about Cyrus from this podcast-like song. She uses great detail to emphasize that if she uses the monkey emoji, you should know that things are not working out. The most Cyrus-esque thing that we got from this song is how she wants to lick this guy’s teeth, although we can’t really comprehend what she means by that. She also talks about how she doesn’t have any idea what she wants, which is relatable for many teenagers. She calls a boy in her life a creep and says that she wants to vomit. There’s just a lot going on in this song, much of which is revealing. The song shows that there is a person behind the celebrity image Cyrus has built up. The song even has a nice chorus where Cyrus’ smooth voice adds to the reflective mood of the song.

“Milky Milky Milk”: 

The song begins with some weird, auto-tuned voice that says the title of the song multiple times. We think it was Cyrus’s voice changed to sound different, but it just sounds like an alien is talking. We’re not sure what is exactly happening. We can’t figure out why the song is called Milky Milky Milk other than the fact that she keeps repeating those words. The song just shows that the songs on the playlist become even more bizarre as you go down the list. We do not recommend listening to this track. The song turns into a more echoey version of Cyrus’ voice with the occasional voice literally croaking in the background. The overall effect is unharmonious and there are too many abrupt sounds mixing together.

“Karen Don’t Be Sad”: 

The first question that we have is “Who is Karen?” It seems very inspiring that Cyrus is trying to help Karen overcome some sort of struggle, possibly bullying. The main anthem is Cyrus belting, “Karen don’t be sad” and then adding “Don’t make the rules” and “It’s up to her.” The song is peaceful and contains some soothing hints of guitar. A light beat plays in the background, and a soft melody accompanies the lyrics. However, the melody is occasionally interrupted by some sort of sci-fi noise that sounds like a soft siren and static in the background. This is the high point of creativity for the album, but that’s not saying much.

Overall, this album is the most bizarre that we have ever heard. Cyrus’ vocals are showing a lot of improvement from before and her voice sounds much stronger as a result. However, this does not make up for the loss of direction and obscurity. The pieces in this puzzle of an album do not fit together, and although Cyrus may be known for her randomness and controversial motives, “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” is not something that we recommend listening to. There is no specific song that was outstanding to us and therefore, just like her petz, this album is definitely dead.