Miley has shared the Bass Persuades title track alongside its first video, giving the clearest preview yet of her tenth studio album ahead of its 18 September release via Atlantic Records. The clip, directed by Mert Alas, leans hard into leather culture and arrives a week after she announced the record under her newly-adopted mononym.
The song sits somewhere between pop and post-punk, a pairing that makes more sense once you clock the collaborators. New York art punks Model/Actriz appear on the record, and according to The Line of Best Fit, Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow is also among the contributors. That combination of abrasive New York energy and Wyatt’s track record in polished, hook-driven songwriting tells you a lot about what Bass Persuades might sound like: friction with a chorus underneath it.
The Bass Persuades title track and what Miley said about it
In a statement posted to Instagram, Miley set out her thinking in plain terms. ‘Music takes hold of us,’ she wrote. ‘We feel it, sing it, sometimes dance to it, let it out and carry on. It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong. Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between.’ There is nothing in that statement trying to pitch a genre or a concept. It reads like someone describing why music exists, which is either the most universal thing a pop artist can say or a quiet acknowledgement that Bass Persuades is not built around a single mood.
The leather-culture visual language in the Alas-directed video reinforces the post-punk edge rather than softening it. It is a deliberate choice of reference, one that positions the Bass Persuades title track well outside the lane her earlier work occupied.
Tenth album, Hollywood Bowl and what came before
Bass Persuades follows Something Beautiful, her 2025 LP, making this her tenth studio album. The gap between the two records has not been quiet. A deluxe edition of Something Beautiful arrived in that period, and she also appeared in a Hannah Montana 20th-anniversary special, donning the iconic blonde wig for what was, by any measure, a culturally loaded moment.
The album release on 18 September will be followed by two live dates in Los Angeles: shows at the Hollywood Bowl on 16 October and 17 October. Two nights at the Bowl to close out the campaign is a statement of intent. It is one of the most storied outdoor venues in the country, and booking it twice suggests confidence in the material and in the fanbase turning up to hear it.
The Model/Actriz connection is worth dwelling on. The New York group occupy a specific corner of the current post-punk landscape, one that prioritises texture and physical intensity over accessibility. Pulling them into a pop project is either a brave curatorial call or evidence that Bass Persuades is genuinely prepared to go somewhere uncomfortable. The Andrew Wyatt credit adds a counter-weight: Miike Snow’s output has always been built on melodic precision. Between those two poles, there is room for something that does not resolve neatly into a single genre tag.
Releasing under just ‘Miley’ rather than the full name is itself a move worth noting. Mononyms carry weight in pop, and adopting one at this point in a career, rather than at its peak, suggests the rebrand is about artistic seriousness rather than mainstream positioning.
Bass Persuades is out on 18 September via Atlantic Records, with the Bass Persuades title track and its video available now.
