Miley Cyrus has released Bass Persuades, a 10-track album that pushes her toward gritty dance-pop, post-punk and electronic textures while putting her relationship with fiancé Maxx Morando directly into both the music and its newest video.
Arriving September 18th through Atlantic Records, Bass Persuades is Cyrus’ first album released professionally under the mononym Miley. A Mert Alas-directed video for “Let’s Get Married” accompanies the record, with Morando appearing alongside Cyrus in footage shot at Chateau Marmont.
“It’s been less than a year since starting to create this album and now releasing it,” Cyrus wrote as the record arrived. Keeping pace with her life in real time is part of what makes the album feel “so alive,” Pitchfork notes.
That immediacy extends to the music. Familiar collaborators Kid Harpoon and Michael Pollack return, Morando moves deeper into production and instrumentation, and unexpected names including Model/Actriz and Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt pull the record toward rougher and stranger corners than a straightforward pop album might suggest.
Bass Persuades Is Built for Movement
Miley has spent much of her career changing the musical frame around the same unmistakable voice. Bass Persuades does it again, but rhythm sits closer to the center this time.
Apple Music describes a record moving through gritty dance-pop, New Wave, electroclash, industrial music, psych-rock and romantic chillwave. Cyrus puts its purpose more simply: “The point was to have community through music again.”
That idea is already embedded in “Bass Persuades,” the title track released September 3rd. Its bass-heavy pulse is surrounded by guitars, synths, percussion, saxophone and hand claps rather than being built around one polished electronic loop.
Kid Harpoon handles bass, percussion, synths, electric guitar and drum programming in the official recording credits. Morando adds guitar and synthesizer, Aaron Shapiro contributes more bass, programming and synths, and James King plays saxophone.
Against that busy arrangement, Miley’s weathered vocal keeps the song from becoming overly slick dance-pop. There is club momentum underneath it, but guitars and live instrumentation keep pushing against the electronic surface.
When the single arrived, Pitchfork called it a pop-meets-post-punk turn. The full album stretches that collision in several directions rather than simply repeating the title track nine more times.
“Let’s Get Married” Turns Personal Fast
Where “Bass Persuades” introduces the record through movement, “Let’s Get Married” pulls it directly into Miley’s current life.
Morando appears throughout the new video, joining Cyrus and friends at Chateau Marmont for a loose sequence of partying, intimacy and hotel-room glamour. Mert Alas directed the visual at the Los Angeles landmark.
No fictional groom was necessary. Cyrus put her actual fiancé in front of the camera.
UPI describes the couple getting close as the night unfolds, although the video never turns into a staged wedding ceremony.
Musically, “Let’s Get Married” is softer than its title might suggest. Dreamy textures replace the harder rhythmic attack heard elsewhere on Bass Persuades, allowing Cyrus to deliver a direct romantic idea without turning it into an oversized wedding anthem.
Apple Music characterizes the song as head-over-heels chillwave, putting its romantic haze in deliberate contrast with the more abrasive rock and electronic textures around it.
Cyrus and Morando confirmed their engagement last year after several years together. On Bass Persuades, however, Morando is not simply part of the romantic framing. He is part of how the record sounds.
Maxx Morando Is All Over the Credits
Morando’s involvement reaches well beyond his appearance in “Let’s Get Married.”
The Liily drummer contributes production and instrumentation across Bass Persuades, continuing a creative partnership with Cyrus that now overlaps openly with their personal relationship.
On the title track, Morando is credited as a producer while playing guitar and synthesizer. His name appears elsewhere in the album credits too, including additional production and synth work on “Different Religion.”
Kid Harpoon remains another major presence, helping shape the record’s mixture of physical rhythm and live instrumentation. Michael Pollack also returns as a central collaborator, while “Let’s Get Married” brings Monsterz & Strangerz and Gregory Aldae Hein into its production team.
The complete album credits show a collaborative record without turning the tracklist into a parade of featured stars. Most outside contributors are used selectively.
That makes the two formal features more noticeable. Brooklyn band Model/Actriz appears on “Different Religion,” while Andrew Wyatt joins Miley on “Neon Signs.” Both collaborations change the musical environment around her rather than simply supplying another famous voice.
Model/Actriz Push “Different Religion” Somewhere Rougher
“Different Religion” brings one of the album’s least obvious combinations into focus.
Model/Actriz arrive from a harsher corner of New York rock than the collaborators normally associated with a Miley Cyrus pop record. Cole Haden contributes vocals, while the band’s involvement brings abrasive guitar and a more confrontational rhythmic edge into the album’s electronic palette.
Haden and Model/Actriz share production duties with Miley and Kid Harpoon. Jack Wetmore supplies electric guitar, Ruben Radlauer handles drums and percussion, and Morando adds synthesizer and additional production.
Those credits make the collaboration feel less like an indie-rock feature dropped onto a finished pop song. Members of Model/Actriz are embedded in the recording itself, helping shape the track’s instrumentation and production.
“Neon Signs” changes the temperature again. Andrew Wyatt joins Miley on a slower track that pulls toward psych-rock and nocturnal pop rather than the harder electroclash surrounding “Different Religion.”
Apple Music likens its mood to a slow dance inside a mid-century motel room. The comparison suits a record that repeatedly changes scenery without losing the bass-and-synth foundation holding much of it together.
Five Tracks Show How Bass Persuades Moves
At 10 main tracks, the album is compact enough that its stylistic changes arrive quickly. Five songs make those shifts particularly clear:
- “Bass Persuades” establishes the record’s physical center with bass, post-punk guitar, synths, percussion and saxophone.
- “Different Religion” lets Model/Actriz pull Miley into a rougher mixture of electroclash, industrial texture and art-punk energy.
- “Let’s Get Married” slows the album into dreamy romantic pop while moving Cyrus’ relationship with Morando directly into the writing.
- “Neon Signs” brings Andrew Wyatt into a hazier psych-rock setting that feels removed from the title track’s harder pulse.
- “Snow” pushes the record toward its emotional resolution, with Cyrus describing its closing mantra as an expression of contentment rather than despair.
“Snow” is particularly revealing. Speaking with Apple Music, Miley explained that the repeated “It doesn’t get better” outro reflects satisfaction with the life she has now.
That is an unusual destination for an artist whose albums have frequently been framed around reinvention. Bass Persuades still changes styles aggressively, but its emotional movement is less about escaping one identity for another.
Instead, the musical restlessness exists alongside a personal life Cyrus has described as increasingly settled.
Becoming Just Miley Is Part of the Release
A conspicuous change appears before the first song even plays: Bass Persuades is professionally credited to Miley rather than Miley Cyrus.
She made the switch immediately before announcing the album, turning one of pop’s most recognizable first names into the artist credit for her 10th studio record. The initial announcement tied the change directly to the new release.
There is a neat career circle in the decision. Her 2007 debut was titled Meet Miley Cyrus; nearly two decades later, she has reached an album credited simply to Miley.
The timing follows the enormous afterlife of “Flowers,” which earned Cyrus her first Grammy wins in 2024. Bass Persuades does not attempt to recreate that single, moving instead toward a rougher mixture of rock, dance music and electronic pop.
Rather than turning the mononym into another elaborate reinvention story, the album makes the change feel comparatively simple. The name is shorter. The music remains restless.
The Hollywood Bowl Is the Next Test
Bass Persuades moves from headphones to a much larger setting in October.
Miley is scheduled to perform two sold-out Hollywood Bowl shows in Los Angeles on October 16th and October 18th. Warner Music’s release announcement says nearly 1.5 million people entered the ticket queue during presales.
Those concerts stand out because Cyrus has remained selective about conventional touring. Instead of surrounding the album with an immediate arena itinerary, she is giving Bass Persuades a concentrated two-night live showcase in Los Angeles.
Songs such as “Different Religion,” “Let’s Get Married” and “Neon Signs” also leave room for the Bowl performances to reveal something the studio versions cannot: how an album moving between industrial textures, chillwave, psych-rock and bass-heavy pop holds together on one stage.
For now, Bass Persuades and the “Let’s Get Married” video are both out. Miley’s next major move comes October 16th, when the new record reaches the Hollywood Bowl.