Here's What Miley Cyrus' Night Crawling Really Means

No word yet on what Miley Cyrus might perform at the Super Bowl's TikTok Tailgate for the 7,500 vaccinated healthcare workers who've been invited (via USA Today). If we had a say in it, it'd be something they could dance to. Like, for example, "Night Crawling." If you haven't listened to it yet, Cyrus' hit track is '80s disco magic.

It's a master lesson in letting your hair down and giving in to the whirlwind. "Night Crawling," featuring Billy Idol, is upbeat, a little bit dark, and delightfully off-kilter. It's a song that smells a little bit like adrenaline, and tastes a little bit like sweaty perfume, and feels a little bit like a forbidden makeout. 

"Sometimes I'm good for nothing," Cyrus starts the song, singing, "Sometimes the best you've ever had, sometimes I need your loving, sometimes I stab you in the back." Which, other than being a track that should feature prominently on everybody's 2 a.m. playlist, is also the perfect pre-game pump-up for the Super Bowl. Are we right? 

Is Miley Cyrus' 'Night Crawling' a memory of darker times?

"Night Crawling" seems to come directly from Miley Cyrus' own personal experience with partying. Cyrus is sober now, and per USA Today, has learned the art of balance. The same was not true a couple of years ago. In November 2020, Cyrus had been sober for six months. "It's really hard because especially being young, there's that stigma of 'you're no fun,'" she reflected to Variety, "It's like, 'honey, you can call me a lot of things, but I know that I'm fun.'"

Before making the decision to go clean, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Cyrus was the living incarnation of "Night Crawling." In fact, when she came out with Plastic Hearts, the album on which "Night Crawling" is featured, Cyrus talked to Rolling Stone about how far down the rabbit hole she'd gone. That was back when she was married to Liam Hemsworth.

"Dude, I was way more off my path at that time than any of the times before where my sanity was being questioned," she admitted, "At that time, my experimentation with drugs and booze and the circle of people around me was not fulfilling or sustainable." Or, as Cyrus sings in "Night Crawling": "Sometimes my thoughts are violent, sometimes they bring me to the light, sometimes I sit in silence, sometimes I'm running for my life."