When I found out Miley Cyrus covered Dylan for that Amnesty International comp - and a Blood on the Tracks song, no less - I was surprised there had not been more OUTRAGE. (Perhaps the usual suspects were busy; only so many hours in the day to spend complaining about female pop musicians Ruining Everything.) Judging from the comments, however, the most impassioned reactions seem to be more like a) OMG Miley is back, b) Miley is so much better than Demi/Selena, c) this song sucks, I miss her old stuff. All of which are deeply confusing to Old Man Me, but no more so than the last one, which I theoretically agree with but did not expect at all. Miley’s recent stuff has been dancey and electro with a rock edge, whereas this is a pretty straight country take. It was my understanding that no one ever went broke underestimating the appetite for authenticity signifiers among music fans, so what do we take from this? Do her fans not care about authenticity as such, or do they just see the “Party in the USA” sound as being more authentic? I dunno!
Anyway, uh, this is actually pretty good cough cough.
