It was an interesting musical night on SNL — like Miley was making a concerted effort to change the narrative around her after the VMAs, turning the volume way back down from eleven to about… six. She starred in an opening sketch parodying her twerking performance as the end of humanity as we know it, and for her performances, stayed clothed (although went with transparency) and belted out the ballad “Wrecking Ball” and then a stripped-down acoustic “We Can’t Stop,” as if to try and quiet the people who claim she hides behind tomfoolery and over-production because she has no talent. (The problem being that when you have fairly dumb lyrics, like “We all so turned up here, getting turned up, yeah, yeah,” this kind of arrangement exposes them — even Miley snickered a couple times.) Sure, she had a couple flat notes here and there, and at this point if you don’t like her voice then this likely wasn’t going to change your mind. But it was a ballsy, confident move, and probably a smart one. She may, like Kanye, overimagine her own schematic brilliance. But she’s still no dummy.
