Miley Cyrus Says Her Upcoming Visual Album “Something Beautiful” is Inspired by Pink Floyd's “The Wall” — But 'More Glamorous'
The "hypnotizing" record also draws inspiration from trippy 2018 horror flick 'Mandy,' the singer revealed
Miley Cyrus is revealing some of the inspirations behind her upcoming album!
The singer-songwriter, 31, is busy in the studio working on her ninth studio album, she revealed in a new interview for Harper's BAZAAR's Art Issue, published Nov. 20. Tentatively titled Something Beautiful, the concept album will center on healing — and feature seriously trippy visuals, Cyrus teased.
While speaking with the magazine, the Grammy winner shared some of the art that she tapped for inspiration while working on Something Beautiful throughout the past six or seven months — including an iconic rock film that she first experienced as a teen.
“It was inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall,” she said of the upcoming album, recalling that she first watched the 1982 surrealist film with a friend and one of her brothers.
The trio “really leaned in” to the rockstar vibe to watch, employing a limo, weed and fur coats à la ‘70s rockers, Cyrus told Harper's BAZAAR. “And so I have this heart-first attachment to it.”
Her idea for Something Beautiful, she explained, “was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”
Also influencing the upcoming record is the 2018 film Mandy, a dark and visually striking horror movie that follows Nicolas Cage as he avenges his girlfriend, portrayed by Andrea Riseborough. It’s one of Cyrus’ favorite movies, even inspiring her to name one of her dogs after the titular character.
Actually, Mandy was originally the only inspiration behind the singer’s upcoming album, which started with her wanting to remake the trippy horror flick as a musical.
“I wanted to play Nicolas Cage,” she told Harper's BAZAAR. “I love that it’s a romance revenge story. Romance and revenge — those are some of the greatest tragedies. I forever and always will be interested in those.”
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Even though her musical spin on Mandy didn’t end up happening, the film’s director, Panos Cosmatos, has remained heavily involved with the making of Something Beautiful. Much like Cosmatos’ style, the record will be “hypnotizing,” Cyrus teased. That, and “glamorous.”
"It’s a concept album that’s an attempt to medicate somewhat of a sick culture through music,” she told the magazine.
“It was important for me that every song has these healing sound properties,” she said. “The songs, whether they’re about destruction or heartbreak or death, they’re presented in a way that is beautiful, because the nastiest times of our life do have a point of beauty. They are the shadow, they are the charcoal, they are the shading. You can’t have a painting without highlights and contrast.”
Cyrus also told Harper's BAZAAR that she herself “would like to be a human psychedelic for people,” adding that she doesn’t “want anyone trying to be like me or imitate me or even be inspired by me.”
Rather, she said, “I want to impact frequencies in your body that make you vibrate at a different level.”