“Slide Away” by Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus’ “Slide Away” is a breakup song with two notable twists, if you will. First off it is pretty obvious that Smiley Miley is in her feelings. That is to say that, to a certain degree, she is suffering from heartbreak. Indeed the romance highlighted in “Slide Away” is one which she has apparently been a part of for a long time, as she mentions the fact that she and her lover are no longer “17” years of age. And as of the release of this song, Cyrus is 26-years old.

However, once listeners get deeper into the track, they will realize that her general disposition is one of relief. That is to say that Miley realizes that this once-perfect romance has now come to an end. And along those lines she is now encouraging her partner to “slide away”, as in get out of her life.

So looking at it from a different perspective, despite being heartbroken, Cyrus is not coming off like she is emotionally devastated or wants her ex back, even though she is obviously disappointed. Rather she is basically telling dude to go back to where he came from. And her rationale for desiring such is based on the idea that she and her partner have grown apart as they transitioned from teenagers into full-fledged adults.

Is “Slide Away” about the demise of Cyrus’ marriage to Liam Hemsworth?

The reason this song is really turning heads is because Miley dropped it fresh after her breaking up with Liam Hemsworth, whom she has been involved with for the last 10 years (i.e. since the time she was “17”) and had actually married back in December of 2018, just eight months ago. Indeed as of the release of this song, Miley’s legal name is actually Miley Ray Hemsworth.

In fact “Slide Away” was released less than a week after she and Liam apparently mutually decided to part way. So logically, it is easy to conclude that the person she is actually addressing in this song is Hemsworth.

And there is more lyrical evidence to support this claim besides her referencing their ages. For instance, in encouraging their breakup, she tells the person she is singing to go “back to the ocean”, while she instead returns to the “city lights”. Miley herself is from Los Angeles, i.e. the big city. Meanwhile Liam comes from Australia, which is across the ocean from the United States. And that particular reference to their relationship is perhaps the most obvious in the entire song.

Conclusion

So conclusively, this is a track about a breakup the singer is going through. She has fought hard to make things work. But things did not turn out so, and now she’s throwing in the towel. Still, she misses the happiness her partner and her once enjoyed. However, all things considered she is also glad he is bouncing and is in fact encouraging him to do so. And more to the point, the song is clearly aimed at actor Liam Hemsworth.

A Liam Hemsworth inspired song

This track is apparently based on Miley Cyrus’s marriage to Liam Hemsworth, whom she first met and started dated in 2009, when they were both in their late teens.  In fact she once referred to Liam as her “first serious boyfriend”.

Since then their relationship had its issues, with the couple initially being engaged in 2012 yet calling it off in 2013. However, they became re-engaged in October of 2016 and actually married a couple of years later, on 23 December 2018.

Then later on 10 August 2019 Cyrus announced their breakup, thus the inspiration for this song, as “Slide Away” was officially released as a standalone single on 16 August 2019.

Writing and Production of “Slide Away”

This breakup track was produced by Mike Will Made-It and Andrew Wyatt. They also co-wrote the song with Alma and Miley Cyrus.