I Want My Loved Ones to Go with Me (RECORDS Nashville/Columbia, 2025)

Nashville-native Noah Cyrus doesn't merely return to her country roots — she fertilizes its soil and waters the base. In ethereal sophomore album "I Want My Loved Ones To Go With Me," Cyrus creates an exceptional collection of gloomy melodies with bright lyricism. Pop world left in the dust, the 25-year-old embraces her born-in ties to country (Billy Ray Cyrus is her father) and creates an elegant record littered in history, healing and family.

There's a sprinkle of life's bittersweet realities, most evident in the charming track "Way of the World," some tranquil resolve, a toast to growth, family and love. It's a solid composition highlighting the singer's independence and peak in self-discovery.

"I Saw the Mountains," haunting and voluminous, makes a simultaneously bold and gentle entrance with a resounding build and booming climax. Cyrus' delightfully developed vocals, which have maintained their uniqueness since pop debut "Make Me (Cry)" in 2017, are doing much leg work, but the string instruments compliment her so well it's hard to imagine they're not one and the same.

A few well-known faces appear as features: Ella Langley, who creates such beautiful, blended harmony with Cyrus, in "Way of the World," Blake Shelton in catchy "New Country," Bill Callahan in cutesy "XXX." And in the deluxe album version, Stephen Wilson Jr and Orville Peck are on two additional tracks.

Cyrus weaves her family's deep musical history into the fiber of every song. Four generations of the Cyrus family make an appearance: great-grandfather Eldon Lindsey Cyrus with his hymn featured in "Apple Tree" and sung by Noah's 'Pappy' Ron Cyrus; father Billy Ray Cyrus writing one of the more dynamic tracks, "With You;" and brother Braison Cyrus writing the moving "Don't Put it All on Me," which features Fleet Foxes, who Braison introduced Noah to later in adolescence. Many artists say their work is inspired by family — not quite as literal as Noah Cyrus, who sews the spirit of her loved ones in the album's very construction.