Miley Cyrus & Britney Spears’ “SMS (Bangerz)” Is Noisy, Weird, Inexplicable: Listen

Sam Lansky | September 30, 2013 8:30 am

After reviewing the snippets from Miley Cyrus‘ upcoming LP Bangerz, the semi-title track “SMS (Bangerz)” (featuring Britney Spears) sounded like one of the least promising offerings from the album — and indeed, the song has now surfaced in full, albeit in incredibly fuzzy and low-quality form.

It’s sort of cool, in an odd way, but also mostly tuneless and embarrassing; Cyrus’ vocal style isn’t well-suited to rapping that you actually want to hear (she’s a better singer than she is a rapper, so much so that the latter isn’t really worth attempting). Notably, Spears is better suited for the style than Cyrus is (as “Work Bitch” demonstrated already); her feathery coo doesn’t need to be rhythmic to be full of character. “Catwalk, slick talk / Flirting with the big dogs,” she exclaims — and it’s perfectly believable.

There’s a dissonance and experimentalism that’s welcome, but it’s just not a very enjoyable listen. Ah, well. Maybe it’ll sound better on the album, eh?

Give it a listen below.