Every traumatic breakup deserves an equally traumatic breakup song, and Miley Cyrus really came through today. With no advance promo, she released a new track last night, and even a 5-year-old from outer space could tell you exactly what it’s about. We’ve spent all week trying to analyze posts and rumors for clues about the breakup, but Miley is giving it right to us. Let’s dive into the new song, and why it matters.
The song is called “Slide Away,” which immediately conjures an image of two people falling out of love with each other, or what you tell creepy guys in your DMs. Miley and Liam have a long history together, so this really feels like the end of an era. And even from the cover artwork for the song, Miley is already confirming some of the rumors about the reasons behind their split. We see pills and empty bottles floating in water, which is likely a nod to the same rumors we heard earlier this week—that Liam started drinking and taking drugs, and sober Miley wasn’t down with that.
The lyrics seem to confirm this. In the pre-chorus, she sings “I want my house in the hills / Don’t want the whiskey and pills,” which doesn’t even really need an explanation. Of course, we’re still just getting Miley’s side of the story, but she’s corroborating at least some of the TMZ sources. She then sings “I don’t give up easily / But I don’t think I’m down.” This seems like confirmation that the substance abuse wasn’t something she was willing to be around.
Those lyrics are the clear indicators of why their relationship didn’t work, at least according to Miley, but throughout the song Miley makes other references that are clearly about the end of her relationship with Liam. She sings “Move on, we’re not 17,” referencing her age when they met on the set of The Last Song. Damn, that’s cold! So I guess the answer is no, I can’t watch that movie anymore without having an existential crisis. Pardon me while I take a moment to sob into a pillow.
In the chorus, she says that he’ll go “back to the ocean,” while she goes to the city lights. Liam, who’s from Australia, has always been a big surfer, which is a big part of the reason that they lived in Malibu for so long. The end of their relationship signals a new chapter where they can each go about their lives separately, whatever that means now that they’re adults.
Since Liam Hemsworth posted his statement about not making statements earlier this week, Miley has been pretty quiet on social media, except to announce her new song. I’m curious what Liam thinks about the new song, because Miley is obviously not taking his route of just not talking about it. If things went down how Miley is saying, maybe Liam is keeping quiet because he knows the split was his fault? Of course, Miley might not be the most reliable narrator here, but it’s just a thought. My ideal scenario would be Liam releasing a competing breakup song, but that somehow seems unlikely.
It also makes sense for her to release a song right now, because everyone is obviously eager for any information about the breakup. I love Miley, but the cynical side of me can’t ignore that this could also be a great PR move. They also talked about this on this week’s episode of Betch Slapped:
Since Miley got back from her Lake Como vacation earlier this week, she’s still been seen hanging out around LA with Kaitlynn Carter, which makes sense. They’re both going through the end of very public relationships right now, so they’re probably offering each other a lot of emotional support, partially in the form of making out. I still have my doubts that their romantic relationship is actually anything deeper than a drunk makeout on a boat, but either way, divorce is f*cking hard, or so I am told.
While Miley and Liam both try to move on from the end of their marriage, at least we have a catchy new song to listen to. I’m currently single, but if I end up in a breakup any time in the next year, this is 100% going to be on my emo playlist.
Images: Shutterstock; mileycyrus / Instagram; Miley Cyrus / YouTube
With any major celebrity breakup, it usually doesn’t take long before the mysterious anonymous sources start rolling in with a lot of information. Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are no different, and since it’s been four days since the initial breakup news came out, the sources are coming out of the woodwork to talk to TMZ. Under normal circumstances, I would say to take information like this with a grain of salt, but these rumors are next level, so you probably need an entire salt cave. Basically, people from both sides are giving complete opposite details about what happened between Miley and Liam, so I’m not even going to try to make a call about who’s wrong and who’s right. Here’s what people are saying, and you can choose to believe it or not.
According to the sources close to Miley, the split was all Liam’s fault. To hear them tell it, Miley desperately wanted to make her marriage work, but Liam started drinking a lot and using drugs. Especially with Miley’s past struggles with substance abuse, this was apparently a dealbreaker for her, and she had to break things off with Liam.
But there are two sides to every story. According to the sources close to Liam, this isn’t what happened at all, and the demise of the relationship was actually due to Miley cheating. Dun dun DUNNNN. While the Miley sources said that she broke up with Liam months ago, the Liam sources say that they were together until just recently. According to them, her Italian vacation (including the photos of her making out with Kaitlynn Carter) “is another attempt by Miley to distract from her infidelity and recent outrageous public behavior.”
So yeah, those are two very different stories. I know I said that there are two sides to every story, but I’m amending that to say that there are three sides to every story, and the third one is the actual truth. If I had to guess (I know, I said I wouldn’t), the situation with Miley and Liam probably falls somewhere in the middle of what all these sources are saying. We don’t know anything about Liam’s drinking and drug habits, but it would be pretty inexcusable for an anonymous source to make that up if there was no truth to it whatsoever. Actually, it’s pretty messed up to blab that to tabloids even if it is true, but oh well.
And because we don’t really know what the timeline was here, it’s entirely possible that Miley did cheat on Liam. We don’t know, and we probably never really will. In the end, no matter what went down to cause the end of their marriage, it doesn’t really matter. Things ended because reasons, and now they both have their whole lives ahead of them to move on and rebuild. Whether that means making out on a yacht in Italy or posting a moody sunset on Insta, to each their own.
Images: Shutterstock;