Miley Cyrus Strips Down For Racy 'Wrecking Ball' Video

If the sight of Miley Cyrus grinding all over Robin Thicke during the VMAs didn't make you uncomfortable, perhaps seeing her french kiss a sledgehammer will do the trick. The young singer bears it all -- or most, anyway -- for her new video, which has her performing in her underwear at certain points, and mostly naked at others. She leaves her boots on. The video isn't quite as NSFW as Thicke's unrated "Blurred Lines" video, but it's close.

I get the impression that Miley's aiming for emotional and "wrecked" with her video for "Wrecking Ball," a song off her fourth studio album, Bangerz. But it's kind of hard to get past the sledgehammer licking, chain-rubbing, ball-riding and nudity to really feel anything particularly emotional. The nudity itself could've translated to physical and emotional vulnerability, but it just doesn't click for me.

Also, between the emotional tone of the song and the attempt to combine sexiness and swinging on something, I also can't help but think of P!nk when I watch this video. For one thing, the three-walls setup reminds me a bit of P!nk's video for "Sober", and then there's the swinging, which pales choreographically by comparison to what P!nk has done with her live performance of "Sober":

In terms of the sexiness, I don't begrudge Miley her efforts to show us all that she's grown up. Transitioning from child star to adult artist is a tricky slope for any talented musician or actor. It just seems like she's determined to go the shocking route, which could result in her looking more gimmicky than talented.

In case you've somehow missed this, here's the video of Miley twerking with Robin Thicke during their performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards:

This poll is no longer available.