The Current
The Evolution of Miley - Single (2014)
Review By Kimberly Raschka Sailor
October 16, 2014
Ordering Information
This single is available for download from these vendors:
In documenting Miley's Climb, NYC's mixed group The Current forgot to capture the wild child side of the iconic pop star. The handful of Miley segments presented are all delivered quite lovingly and warmly. It makes me feel like cuddling, or visiting the pumpkin patch. Not bad, but not the Miley that comes to mind; what should be a colored strobe lights party anthem is just something different.
The full, lush approach does add great uplifting choral power to Wrecking Ball. The track really explodes into something wonderful for this last part of the medley, so much so that I'd recommend The Current build a full Wrecking Ball arrangement around what they've already laid down, because what they've got here is hot. Extract, repackage as a standalone, boom.
What else works: the clear percussion shifts to reset the tempo and mood between songs. This could get really tricky, but it just doesn’t; it's just right. What doesn't quite work: men singing falsetto, and the over-processed bass against the warmth above. Either choose the mechanical bass or the warm vocals; having both causes friction.
What's promising here are the subtleties in the arrangement that connect the fragments into a whole for this medley. The Evolution of Miley is a good idea for this group, but it just needs to evolve further.