Perhaps more than anything else in her life, Miley Cyrus desperately needs someone who will tell her when her ideas aren’t good.

It’s the same reason why the “Star Wars” prequels suffered from George Lucas’ unfettered ideas, or why James Cameron is forging ahead with more “Avatar” movies even though no one cares at this point: when you get to a certain point in your career, the people around you are afraid to tell you your ideas suck.

It’s been a prevalent issue for much of her post-Hannah Montana career. Sometimes, unrestrained, Cyrus ends up with gold: her 2013 effort, “Bangerz,” was a mostly fun collection of — and I’m trying hard to avoid the pun here — hits, including some stand-outs like “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball.” While much of it is generic pop music, the hits are solid and catchy.

Other times, like on 2015’s “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” she’s capable of putting out remarkably terrible work. There isn’t enough I can say about how horrible this record is; the memories of it have haunted me for four years now. Overly long and weird for its own sake, “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” stands out in my head as one of the worst albums I’ve ever heard.

But, this is a review of her most recent EP, “SHE IS COMING,” so that’s enough venting about “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” for today. And while “SHE IS COMING” is certainly far better than that record, it definitely pales in comparison to “Bangerz” and even her more recent album, “Younger Now.”

For “SHE IS COMING,” Cyrus has organized a surprisingly diverse cast of featured artists and producers: we see production from the likes of Mike Will Made It and Mark Ronson, along with vocals from the Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, RuPaul and Mike Will’s ubiquitous sidekick Swae Lee.

The biggest issue with the EP, though, is the ways in which those featured artists are deployed.

The record starts strong, with the first two tracks — which are notably devoid of any featured artists — “Mother’s Daughter” and “Unholy.” The former is a particularly catchy song, detailing Cyrus’ relationship with her mother, set to an uncharacteristically understated beat from Tay Keith.

Things go off the rails fairly quickly after that, though, starting especially with the Ghostface Killah vehicle “D.R.E.A.M.” The song’s chorus draws liberally from Wu-Tang’s classic “C.R.E.A.M.” — which is a cliche in and of itself at this point — but Cyrus steps up the corn factor by saying it’s drugs that rule everything around her, instead of cash.

The song is fine, though. It’s catchy and dream-like. Once it get’s to Ghostface Killah’s verse, though, that’s where things go wrong. The way the verse is edited into the track, it makes Ghost’s verse sound like it’s part of a different song. Additionally — and this hurts to say, as I’m pretty sure I’m on record saying Ghostface Killah is one of the top five rappers of all time — it’s easily the worst, most phoned-in verse of his career. Then, the verse, and the track along with it, suddenly crashes to an end, stopping so abruptly I thought I had accidentally skipped to the next song.

Immediately after Ghost stops rapping, we hear RuPaul start speaking. That experience is surreal in itself, but the RuPaul-led “Cattitude” is nothing short of a mess. I get what it’s trying to be: a callback to the gay anthems of the 90s led by RuPaul and the like. But there’s something that just feels so cloying and artificial about this song; it really just feels like it’s trying too hard.

With the title “Cattitude,” you can already imagine the kind of lines that are coming, but the lyrics to this track are so ridiculously bad they’re worth mentioning here. In the first verse, RuPaul repeats “My p***y on fire,/ P***y five-alarm fire,/ This cat is in heat.” Cyrus then begins taking up the mantle of chanting these lines.

It’s just corny. That’s really the only word for it.

The final two songs on the record are fine, but mostly forgettable — which is preferable to the trash fire that was “Cattitude.” “Party Up the Street” sees Cyrus trading vocals back and forth with Swae Lee, who does his normal, boyish warbling shtick on the chorus. It sounds like every other song Swae Lee is on right now, but it’s fine. And “The Most” is mostly (I’m sorry) unremarkable.

This year marks the first chapter in a project that will ultimately be called “SHE IS MILEY CYRUS,” with this EP being followed by two more EPs: “SHE IS HERE” and “SHE IS EVERYTHING.”

I speak for myself when I say, if they’re filled with as many clunkers as this one was, “HE IS NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.”

Miley Cyrus’ newest EP, ‘SHE IS COMING,’ released on May 31.
https://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_miley-cyrus2-1559276311-640×640-320×320-1.jpg.optimal.jpgMiley Cyrus’ newest EP, ‘SHE IS COMING,’ released on May 31.

By Patrick Kernan

pkernan@timesleader.com

Album: ‘SHE IS COMING’

Artist: Miley Cyrus

Label: RCA

Length: 19:04

Best Track: ‘Mother’s Daughter’

Worst Track: ‘Cattitude’

Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan