Single Review: “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus joins her dad as a country artists, at least for one song right now, as she hits country radio for the first time as a solo artist. Straight from her upcoming movie for Hannah Montana, it’s “The Climb”.

Now this song is about as cliche as it gets message wise. Using her fan base and her character as a springboard, Miley’s first real ballad for radio tackles the idea that life isn’t about where you end up, but the journey getting there. Personally the journey is the worst part from my perspective, but I suppose that this concept is generally positive and inspirational to her young G rated fans who still have a long road ahead of them.

However, it’s not the cliche message or the G-rated content that litters this song that marks it down, it’s the general presentation. As experienced as she is, Miley tries way way too hard to make this song a heart-wrenching and magical pop-driven hit. She deserves respect for her performance on the verses which do in fact provide a delicate and sincere feeling to them, but once she hits the chorus it’s littered with over the top vocal tricks and seemingly uncomfortable notes and lyrical presentation that end up both degrading and awkward.

Now I am not shooting down America’s favorite pre-21 sweetheart, I’m simply grading this song as a country hit. It will certainly appeal to the very young fan base that has helped Miley reach her star status, but it does little to support any very mature quality to her music. I believe Miley, if she approaches her music with a lot more maturity and perfection as Taylor Swift did in much of her material, could potentially be a powerful presence in the country world, but a song like this, cliche or not, effective or not, just doesn’t cut it.

Listen: www.myspace.com/mileycyrus

Grade: D+