Relationships and parties are both magnificent to be in and a great experience for all involved, but once they’re over, someone has to pick up the pieces left behind and clean up the mess. Miley Cyrus covers this in her new video for “Slide Away,” her recently released break-up anthem that comes at a time when she’s newly single. Here, it’s the morning after. Groggily, she has to sift through the memories of the night before and clean up the mess left in the party’s wake.
Miley floats in and out of consciousness in “Slide Away,” like she’s intoxicated — or maybe, as the lyrics suggest, like she’s done with all that. The house around her, like her mind in the wake of a wrecked relationship, is in shambles. Beer cans, pizza boxes, and other kinds of trash litter the pool that she stands in. Throughout the visual, we see her reliving the party and juxtaposing the lively atmosphere of the night before (the relationship) with the current disheveled aftermath (the breakup).
It doesn’t end with a resolution. Miley lays her head in her arms and stares off into the distance, like she might not even be aware the camera is still rolling. She’s deep in her memory museum, reflecting on the party of a lifetime, grasping onto these feathers of the past before they slide away.
Miley performed “Slide Away” for the first time ever at the 2019 VMAs last month. She shared the song after splitting with her ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth, earlier in August.
Watch Miley’s poignant video for “Slide Away” up above.
