Miley Cyrus and Pharrell Williams’ new song is actually pretty old
"Doctor (Work It Out)" marks the artists' first collaboration since 2014
Music News Miley cyrus
Miley Cyrus’ next era is all about joy, freedom, and reclaiming her own story. The two-time Grammy Award winner’s newest song—which is actually a pretty old song—is exactly in line with this general ethos: if it feels right, why not celebrate it?
That’s exactly what Cyrus and Pharrell Williams, who last collaborated a decade ago on 2014's “Come Get It Bae,” are doing with their latest release, “Doctor (Work It Out).” “I could be your doctor / And I could be your nurse,” Cyrus sings over a funky, upbeat track that immediately recalls the duo’s earlier work. That’s not a coincidence. In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 (via Pitchfork), the artists revealed that the single actually dates back to 2012, when they were working together on Cyrus’ fourth album, Bangerz. (Williams is credited as a writer and producer on the record.) The unreleased demo was originally leaked online in 2017 (per Rolling Stone), but the pair made some updates for the song’s official release.
“We just knew it was early,” Williams said. “You just never know. And there’s a moment where you feel like you feel the stickiness in something, but you may feel that the environment is not ready for it.”
The culture—and Cyrus herself—are certainly ready for it now, at least if the outpouring of love following her triumphant “Flowers” performance at the Grammys is anything to go by. In fact, it was this moment and the lead-up to it that inspired the pair to release the song in the first place. “Around the Grammys, Pharrell and I were talking about putting the song out, and it just felt like it was so serendipitous, and there were so many alignments and so many moments that made me know that now was the perfect time,” Cyrus said. “Sometimes things in our past make more sense in our present than they ever did then. And so this song, I think the nature, the celebration, the feeling, especially with the video, the joy, the dancing, the letting go, it’s what this song really always needed.”
The video, directed by Jacob Bixenman, looks like it could have been filmed immediately after Cyrus walked out of the Crypto.com arena with her two gold statues. If you’ve been hankering for the return of goofy girl dancing at the club (complimentary), this one’s really for you.
23 Comments
“Reclaiming her own story” doesn’t mean anything.
Sure it does, and that’s been a huge thing lately.
Maybe it does to her.
I don’t know what this story is? There have been so many iterations of this entertainer. She was the Blurred Lines girl, the Wrecking Ball, back to Jesus, now this. I probably missed one or two. Madonna made it work because it was all pastiche. This is like a perpectual identity crisis.
I wanted to like it but I was too bored to finish listening to the song. And I usually really like Miley’s music.
I’m certainly no music producer, but the beat feels like it’s missing…something. It’s rather pared down to the point where you’re expecting some big explosion of sound that doesn’t arrive.
I forgot that was Miley on Come Get it Bae. Sometimes her voice outperforms how much I respect her voice.2024 feels like the year everyone rediscovers a popular genre flip/singer pairing that happened a decade ago already and everyone was already talking about.
Yeah the song sort of doesn’t go anywhere or build
That current hairstyle on Miley is a regrettable choice. Not only won’t it age well, it doesn’t even look good for the present.
Oh, and that shade of lip gloss, I mean you want to know what I think about it?
No?
Fair enough. It’s one music video. It doesn’t really matter.
If you’re talking about it, she’s done her job.
I like the hair, if only because it reminds me of Tina Turner as Aunty Entity.
And Miley is clearly enjoying it, which is more than we can say for artists with arguably “better” haircuts/styles who look positively miserable.
It should be illegal to bring 80s hair back.
Yeah, she looks like the second wife of a Texas used car salesman.
I don’t know, it kind of works for me. She’s already got very strong features, so it makes sense in a “leaning into it” sort of way.
On the chart of “regrettable Miley Cyrus hairstyles”, I’m not sure this one even cracks the Top 10.
Ha! I was thinking that she looks like a 42 year old former disco starlet working the Bellagio in 1986.
Sounds like she’s enjoying her job. And has the increasingly rare ability to be patient.
I hate it.
I just find her music thoroughly unmusical. I can’t just hear it in the background and say “meh”. I have to turn it off.
With three negative comments (so far), we get it: you don’t like her. Maybe you shouldn’t waste your time on an article about someone for whom you clearly have such disdain.
I like the music, but this video annoys me. Her dancing is so stiff and awkward, it makes me want to rewatch old Janet Jackson videos because that’s how it should be done. And the mouth breathing into the camera is just obnoxious. I’ll listen to it on the radio, but won’t watch it again.
Wtf the chat replay won’t turn off
I feel old now thinking 2014 wasn’t that old. Was expecting a Sinatra cover or House of the Rising Sun or something by Irving Berlin or Rodgers and Hammerstein. Not something from the Obama Years.