In Elite Daily’s I’ll Never Forgive Y’all, editors explain why underrated albums of the last decade deserved better. Here, Adrianne Reece wonders how the intrigue of Miley Cyrus’ 2020 album, Plastic Hearts, fell into the void compared to the praise of her latest era.

Miley Cyrus has always had an ear for pop-rock. She first leaned into the genre on 2010’s Can’t Be Tamed, an album that allowed her to thrive beyond the bubblegum pop of Hannah Montana. She snuck in a rendition of Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” on the album and lent her raspy howls to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on tour that following year, further proving that her vocal range and a raucous guitar can create magic. Nearly a decade and a few classic rock covers later, Cyrus fully leaned into her head-banging alter-ego to release the best album of her career: 2020’s Plastic Hearts.

Was the album worth the wait? Absolutely. Though, as a fan, the journey to get there was a bit exhausting. After Cyrus retired her Disney crown in 2011, her career went on an experimental pendulum. She controversially went down the trap-pop route (2013’s Bangerz), ate glittery slime in the name of psychedelia (2015’s Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz), flexed her country roots (2017’s Younger Now), and attempted to marry those sounds on She Is Coming in 2019. That EP might’ve been underwhelming, but at least it spawned the energetic lead single, “Mother’s Daughter.” That’s a “f*ck you” anthem that will stand the test of time.

That’s the perplexing allure of Cyrus’ talent — she’s not afraid to test the sonic waters, even if the waves sometimes swallow her whole. And for me, the latter has grown to define most of her discography. While her ear for swinging between genres produced some promising records, none of them had truly convinced me that she’d found her lane, a sound with enough gravitational pull to appreciate the thunderous roar of her vocals.

That absence of consistent authority, which has started an interesting conversation about Cyrus’ career over the years, made me anxiously wonder what direction she’d take after She Is Coming. Then, her fiery set at 2019’s Glastonbury Festival screamed that answer: She was finally in her grunge rock era. Between nods to her past work, the singer impressively sang covers of Metallica and Led Zeppelin as though it was written in her DNA. Never has Cyrus’ voice sounded more secure than in a swarm of electric guitar riffs, and that’s what makes Plastic Hearts such a stunner.