“Rose Colored Lenses” by Miley Cyrus, Sunday, June 4, 2023

 

This is the third track I’ve talked about from Miley Cyrus’ latest album, Endless Summer Vacation.   Although the album doesn’t have a title track, the album’s title comes from the album’s third track, “Rose Colored Lenses.” Musically, the track is proof of the influence of Cyrus’ last album, Plastic Hearts. While Endless Summer Vacation is thoroughly a pop album and a kind of return to form of the “Wrecking Ball” singer, the heavy bass guitar in the ballad “Rose Colored Lenses” feels like it comes from the rock-heavy previous album.

SOMEHOW THE BEDSHEETS ARE DIRTY. Lyrically both Endless Summer Vacation and Plastic Hearts are similar. Both albums deal with the singer’s divorce with Liam Hemsworth. Both albums deal with the singer’s independent, untamable spirit. And both albums have a little regret in them. Today’s song “Rose Colored Lenses” is a recollection about how good the sex was. The metaphor of the song likens sex to putting on “rose-colored lenses,” initially blinding the speaker from noticing the glaring issues that come up when two people are incompatible.  The memory of wild sex that leads to either roughing up the hotel room or even some damages signals regret in the speaker’s wistful memories. She may ask “what if it didn’t turn out this way?” “Was it inevitable that we would grow incompatible?” or “What if we could re-create that weekend? Would we still be together?” Alas, neither summer or vacation are endless, so at some point things have to become real and the glasses have to come off. 

WE COULD STAY LIKE THIS FOREVER. When discussing Miley Cyrus, the singer’s religious past has been both over and under-stated.  So often conservative Christians have pointed out the corrupting force that Disney had on its young stars. Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus are often the prime examples, but there are certainly others who serve as dog whistles. While Lindsay Lohan’s wild addictions certainly serve as a point in the conservatives’ favor, reevaluating Cyrus’ rebellion since the time she “stepped off the plane at LAX” is more about holding society’s sexual mores in-line with the Bible than about a person’s “God-given right” to bodily autonomy. There were several reasons why Cyrus’ sex-positivity caused grumbling among the pre-DeSantis anti-Disney camp. One of the main reasons was that Cyrus was once outspoken about her Baptist faith and even wore a purity ring, swearing off sex until marriage. But little by little, Cyrus realized that her sexuality was more complicated than the Evangelical explanation, so she took off her purity ring, started dating men and women, and twerking in concert. Cyrus’ transformation was only unique that it required a crisis of faith to react to. And of course, it’s always a little uncomfortable the “coming of age” of a famous child star. “Rose Colored Lenses” doesn’t look back at the simple times when a Baptist Miley Cyrus probably defined marriage as “one man, one woman until death do us part,” but sometimes when some of us post-evangelicals think about heart break, it feels nice to think of the world that simply. Then we’re hit with the reality that that myth was never true. 

Read the lyrics on Genius.