Music Review: Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop"

Miley Cyrus

We Can’t Stop

Album: TBA

Year: 2013

              Miley Cyrus parties hard in the drugged “We Can’t Stop.”

             A distorted male vocal and laced “ohs” open the single, setting a hallucinatory tone.  Part of the chorus starts the song. It’s the party of the year.  In her sheer bikini and leopard stilettos, she and a girlfriend block and push their way through the crowd to get to the pool.  At the pool, they announce how awesome they are and how everyone at the party wishes they could be them. People inside the house start looking outside. The people in the pool tread water.  Her friend turns her body towards her and starts caressing her face and then they kiss.  The crowd hollers and Cyrus screams. (“It’s our party we can do what we want/It’s our party we can say what we want/It’s our party we can love who we want/We can kiss who we want/We can live how we want/It’s our party we can do what we want/It’s our party we can say what we want/It’s our party we can love who we want/We can kiss who we want/We can live how we want.”)

               Half empty red cups litter her house and backyard. The humidity from the sun has moistened her forehead and she wipes it off with her wrist. She can see a bead of sweat trickling down a girl’s back as she raises her hands up to the rap song playing on the stereo. She turns around and two girls gush to her that her parties are all everyone will be talking about and photos are already online. She shows her last Facebook post with a dozen comments on it from her phone. As the girl keeps chatting, she sees a guy in a red shorts with some fantastic abs. She thinks she may have found the guy she will sleep with tonight. She walks away from the still chatting girl and introduces herself as the host of the party. She notices he doesn’t have any keys on him and begins to pepper him with questions. She lets him know he can stay as long as he wants. The party ends at sunrise. (“Red cups and sweaty bodies everywhere/Hands in the air like we don’t care/Cause we came to have so much fun now/Got somebody here might get some now/If you’re not ready to go home/Can I get a hello?/Cause we gonna go all night, till we see the sunlight, alright.”)

          In the chorus, she texts her friends to see whose house will be available next weekend. The planning has already started and by tomorrow, the invites will go out. The MDMA she took has elevated her senses.  She and her friends are known, past the wealthy suburb where they live and into the city. Every rumor ever told about them rumor is true.  They control every major social event and always make sure they have the upper hand. (“ So la da dee da dee, we like to party/Dancing with Molly, doin’ whatever we want/This is our house, this is our rules/And we can’t stop, and we won’t stop/Can’t you see it’s we who own the night?/Can’t you see it’s we who ’bout that life?/And we can’t stop, and we won’t stop/We run things, things don’t run we/We don’t take nothing from nobody, yeah yeah/It’s our party we can do what we want/It’s our party we can say what we want/It’s our party we can love who we want/We can kiss who we want/We can live how we want.”)

            She slaps one of her friend’s backsides as the girl moves her hips from side to side.  She knows other people call her a slut and a loser. But she blows it off their moral superiority. She’ll wait until she’s dead and then only God’s opinion will matter. Three people open the door the bathroom, cocaine vials in hand, as several others walk out.  The line has inched its way from the kitchen to the poolhouse. (“To my homegirls here with the big butt/Shaking it like we at a strip club/Remember only God could judge ya, forget the haters, cause somebody loves ya/Everyone in line in the bathroom/Trying to get a line  in the bathroom/We all so turned up here, getting turned up yeah, yeah yeah yeah.”)

              The chorus is sung again. Cyrus takes the second “it’s the” part of the chorus, claiming no one has any say over her. No one will be telling her to shut up tonight. (“So la da dee da dee, we like to party…It’s our party we can do what we want to/It’s our house we can love who we want to/It’s our song we can sing if we want to/It’s my mouth I can say what I want to/And we can’t stop, and we won’t stop…we don’t take nothing from nobody, yeah yeah.”)

Cyrus’ disconnected, scraping vocals are subdued. This is what her life has become. She wanted to be known and gain a reputation for something. If it’s for being a strung out, attention-seeking young woman looking for approval from everyone she meets, well, at least it’s something.

      The frigid “We Can’t Stop” is a cry for help and lots of love.