Amaury Nessaibia
At long last, Noah Cyrus is ready to officially introduce herself. Six years after she launched her music career with the single “Make Me (Cry),” the 22-year-old singer-songwriter’s debut studio album, The Hardest Part, arrived on Friday. When I point out to her on a recent Zoom call how unbelievable it is that she’s maintained a steady stream of music during the past six years without ever releasing a proper album, Cyrus agrees while attempting to explain: There were “inner conflicts with past teams,” she says, and then things got put on the back burner while she prioritized her “mental health and physical wellbeing” (more on that later).
More than anything, though, she began her career “extremely young” and needed time to figure herself out. Case in point: At one time, she was set to release an album called NC-17—a cheeky title that played on her initials, her age at the time, and, of course, the MPAA’s rating for explicit films with an age restriction (edgy!). That project was ultimately scrapped, something Cyrus is grateful for in retrospect.
“It was a great title, but I don’t even really know if that’s who I am,” she tells The Daily Beast. “Looking back at an album that would be called NC-17 seems so off my brand or vibe. I’ve realized that I definitely like a more organic sound and feel to my overall aesthetic, so NC-17 doesn’t really feel fitting to me anymore.”