Secrets (album)

### **Producers**

Miley Cyrus • DJ Mustard • Marshmellow • Sean Meyer • Max Martin • Jason Morey • Pharell Williams • Andrew Wyatt • Mike WiLL Made-It • Andrew "Pop" Wansel • TBHits • Mark Ronson

## Singles from "Secrets"

1. "Feelin' Myself" (buzz single)Released: March 15, 2019

2. "Don't Call Me Up" (lead single)Released: June 7, 2019

3. "Better Now" (second single)Released: September 27, 2019

4. "Bridges" (third single)Released: December 27, 2019

5. Don't Say You Love Me (fourth single)Released: April 3, 2020

**"Secrets"** is the third studio album by American singer Miley Cyrus. It was released on October 25, 2019, through Shadow Records. While touring the world on her **Hurricane World Tour,** Cyrus announced she was already working on new music and this will lead up to a new album, she announced the album on July 5, 2019 via her socials with a link to pre-order the album. The album uses the genres pop, R&B and hip-hop. Its lyrics address the subjects of anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, relationships and happiness.

After touring for a full year in 2018 and after a short hiatus after that (the tour ended in December of 2018), Cyrus released *Feelin' Myself* on March 15, 2019 as a buzz single for the album, the song features Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa and is the first song Cyrus ever rapped on. The single became a global success and went to the top spot in every country that it charted, selling 9 million pure copies and 20 million units worldwide. The song became Cyrus her fourth (out of 5 total) diamond singles in the United States. Cyrus released the lead single *Don't Call Me Up* on June 7, 2019 and also became a global success and also went to the top spot in every country that it charted.

The album was completed in early May of 2019 and was finalized at the end of the month. On July 5, 2019, the album became availabe for pre-order with the release of promotional single "Secrets" which features Ariana Grande.

## Background and production

Cyrus started working on her third studio album in the early stages of while being on tour. **The Hurricane World Tour** (in promotion of her two albums 'Bangerz' & 'MILEY') started on August 12, 2018, three weeks in and she was already writing songs for the album in her tour bus and dressing room at the veneus she attended to perform a show there.

With help from producers such as Marshmellow, DJ Mustard, Sean Meyer, Jason Morey, Pharell Williams, Max Martin, Andrew Wyatt, Mike WiLL Made-It, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Mark Ronson and TBHits, Cyrus learned a lot too as she co-produced the album and co-wrote every track on the album, with some of the songs completely written on her own.

She described the album as "my most personal and best album to date" in multiple interviews while promoting current single and album. To achieve this, she went on writers camps to write songs for the album and really made her songwriting personal.

## Release and artwork

On February 14, 2019, the hype for the song began as Miley Cyrus blacked out her social media accounts, showcasing a quote on her Twitter header. Two days later (February 16), Miley began tweeting some lyrics of the song together with Kendrick Lamar posting lyrics on his Instagram. On February 20, 2019, Cyrus started to reveal the single cover for "Feelin' Myself" (featuring Kendrick Lamar & Wiz Khalifa) as a buzz single for the album,

she did this on Instagram and shared a piece of the single cover each day for nine days long. In the cover, it didn't reveal who was featured on the song, but it only revealed the title of the song and the single cover. On March 1, 2019, the song was put up for pre-save on iTunes & Spotify, with that, the full cover was revealed and it was announced that Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa were featured on the song. When the song was a week away from release, different artists (Shawn Mendes, Aaliyah, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé & Kendrick Lamar) put photos up on their social media accounts counting down the days until release, the song was released on March 15, 2019.

On July 5, 2019, Cyrus revealed the official cover for the album via her social media accounts, with this reveal, she announced that the pre-order links for the album are up but didn't announced the release date, with the reveal, she also released the title track of the album which features Ariana Grande as promotional single.

On September 22, 2019, Cyrus took to her social media accounts to reveal the tracklist of the album including snippets to all the songs.

## Singles

"Feelin' Myself" featuring Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa was released as a buzz single through digital download and streaming on March 15, 2019. Co-written by Miley Cyrus, Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa along with Mike Free and will.i.am and the song was produced by DJ Mustard. The song topped every chart around the world, including three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, a new milestone for Cyrus, the song was certified Diamond for selling over more than 10,000,000 copies by the RIAA, marking it Cyrus' fourth diamond single in the United States. The song sold 9 million pure copies and 20 million units around the world.

"Don't Call Me Up" was released on June 7, 2019 as the lead single frrom the album and was released for digital download and streaming. Co-written by Miley Cyrus along with Kamille Purcell and Steve Mac, the track is produced by Max Martin. The song topped charts around the world, spending three weeks at the top on the Billboard Hot 100, the song is Cyrus most succesful song in the United States, selling over 6 million pure copies and 12 million units, achieving the Diamond status by the RIAA for selling over 10,000,000 copies in the country, making it Cyrus' fifth diamond single in the country. Worldwide, the song sold 10 million pure copies and 20 million unites around the world, making it Cyrus biggest single to date.

"Better Now" was released on September 27, 2019 as the second single from the album and was released for digital download and streaming. Co-written by Miley Cyrus along with Max Martin and Savan Kotecha, the track is produced by Andrew "Pop" Wansel and co-produced by Max Martin and Miley Cyrus herself. The song managed to top 5 of every chart, including it's highest peak of #3 in Australia (ARIA), Europe (European Top 100) & Canada (Canadian Hot 100). The song managed to peak at #4 in the United States (Billboard Hot 100) and United Kingdom (Official Charts Company). Worldwide, the song sold over 6,000,000 pure copies and 10,700,000 million units around the world.

### Promotional singles

"Secrets" (featuring Ariana Grande) was the only promotional single for the album, released on July 5, 2019, with the pre-order for the album. The song charted at the top 20 of every chart, including it's highest peak of #13 on the Billboard and Canadian Hot 100, the song has sold more than 2,9 million copies around the world.

## Critical reception

 Source
 Metacritic
 Source
 PopMatters
 Consequence of Sound
 AllMusic
 Pitchfork

*Secrets* received mixed to positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a high score of 60, based on 4 reviews, being categorized as 'Mixed or average'.

**PopMatters** describes the album as a album with loveable and hateable songs with a score 68 out of 100, stating 'Even though Miley seems to have good intentions [...] she delivers some of her best work to date, but the other songs matching it didn't make it whole'. They named Slide Away, Don't Say You Love Me, Don't Call Me Up and Bridges as the best tracks on the album.

**Consequence of Sounds** describes the album as a big improvement from her pevious work, with a score 65 out of 100, stating 'The album is a big improvement from her self-titled but it's still mostly average, the album does hold some of the best songs of her career [...] it's still an improvement in a lot of ways so that deserves to be recognized'. They named Slide Away, Don't Call Me Up, Nothings Breaks like a Heart (Japan/Target) and The Cure as the best tracks on the album.

**AllMusic** describes the album as a upgrade from her previous work, with a score 55 out of 100, stating 'The album works as an upgrade from both previous projects [...] with "Secrets", Miley shows some improvement but still being too far from an incredible project'. They named Don't Call Me Up and Better Now as one of the best tracks on the album.

**Pitchfork** describes the album as a copy of her previous work, with a score out 51 out of 100, stating 'This album feels like a near copy of her self-titled album'. They named Slide Away, Don't Call Me Up as one of the best tracks on the album.

## Charts

**Weekly charts**

 Canadian Albums (Billboard)
 European Albums
 UK Albums (OCC)
 US Billboard 200

## Certifications

 Canada (Music Canada)
 United Kingdom (BPI)
 United States (RIAA)

## Release history

 United States
 Japan