Noah Cyrus’s debut studio album, The Hardest Part, arrived on September 16, 2022. Across its ten original-release tracks, Cyrus drew on family history, grief, relationships, addiction and mental health, shaping those experiences into a record with country, folk, pop and soul elements. Her comments about recovery below describe what she shared in 2022—not her present circumstances.
What The Hardest Part is about
Cyrus described the album as autobiographical and said its songs formed a connected story. “Every song is important to the story, and for the first time I’m revealing my complete and honest truth,” she said in the release announcement. Apple Music quoted her describing its themes as “love and loss and death and life and heartache and addiction and mental health.”
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That candor came after years of growing up in public. In a September 2022 interview with GRAMMY.com, Cyrus said she had “a lot of growing up to do lyrically, personally, artistically.” The album became a way to write from that more developed perspective rather than present its painful subjects as isolated headlines.
How family and Nashville shaped the sound
Cyrus has described her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, as an influence on her musical background and on the lyrics, narrative and sound of this record. In the GRAMMY.com interview, she connected its atmosphere to Nashville and her father’s farm. She recorded local birds and wind on video and said those environmental sounds became part of the music.
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The resulting palette draws on country, folk, pop and soul. Label materials highlighted pedal steel and slide guitar, while Apple Music’s album notes describe live instrumentation, ambient birds and strings, a family recording in the title track, and a bluegrass inflection in “Loretta’s Song.” Those are descriptions of the record’s particular textures, not a single genre label that captures every track.
Key songs and the stories behind them
“Noah (Stand Still)”
Cyrus traced the song’s central phrase to advice passed down through her father’s family: “just stand still.” In Apple Music’s track notes, she recalled being six months into recovery, telling a close friend she feared she might not reach another birthday, and hearing her father repeat the phrase. She also connected the song to a frightening conversation near her 20th birthday. It is a personal account of what helped her in a difficult moment, not medical advice.
“Mr. Percocet”
In Apple Music’s notes, Cyrus connected the song to emotional and drastic mood changes she associated with withdrawing from frequent Percocet use, and to the effects those changes had on a relationship. That is her account of the song’s subject; it should not be generalized into a medical description of withdrawal.
“Every Beginning Ends”
The track features Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie. Cyrus told GRAMMY.com that she had followed his work since childhood, asked her manager to contact him, and traveled to Seattle to write together. “Every Beginning Ends” took shape during those sessions.
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“Loretta’s Song”
Cyrus wrote this song in tribute to her late grandmother and partly as a way to comfort her mother while she was grieving. Apple Music’s notes also describe a bluegrass quality in the arrangement, one example of how the album’s family stories meet its Nashville-influenced sound.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Cyrus shared about addiction and recovery in 2022
In a first-person statement accompanying the September 16, 2022 release announcement, Cyrus described the period leading up to 2020 as one in which downers had taken over her life. She also recounted an unhealthy codependent relationship, isolation during the pandemic, anxiety and depression, and the death of her grandmother as a turning point. She said she sought help and worked to stop using pills. In that same statement, she said December 15 would mark her second sobriety anniversary.
A 2022 interview with The Daily Beast also quoted Cyrus saying she had been off Xanax for more than a year at the time. These statements establish what she chose to share then; they do not establish her health or recovery status today.
The album release notes also quoted Cyrus saying, “Making this album was one of the happiest times of my entire life, and in a lot of ways saved it.” The record places that statement alongside songs about painful experiences, without making those experiences the whole story.
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The Hardest Part was released through RECORDS/Columbia Records on September 16, 2022. Sony Music Canada’s release announcement lists ten tracks on the original release:
- “Noah (Stand Still)”
- “Ready To Go”
- “Mr. Percocet”
- “Every Beginning Ends”
- “Hardest Part”
- “I Just Want A Lover”
- “Unfinished”
- “My Side Of The Bed”
- “I Burned LA Down”
- “Loretta’s Song”
Apple Music lists the original album and a deluxe edition as separate versions, so the ten-track count refers specifically to the original release, not every version available on the platform. The album is listed on Apple Music; release and track-list details are also available from Sony Music Canada.
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