Prisoner (feat. Dua Lipa)

The Backyard Sessions version of Prisoner strips the studio original's glossy Olivia Newton-John–sampling disco-rock down to a live band in an open space, and the change reveals what the song actually is: a duet about compulsion. Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa trade lines over a driving eighties guitar riff and a real, roomy drum kit, and without the layered production polish you hear the friction between their voices — Cyrus all smoke and torn edges, Lipa cooler, rounder, deliberately unhurried. That contrast is the drama. The lyric essence is addiction dressed as romance: they're prisoners of a person they know is bad for them, and neither wants the cell door opened. There's no plea for rescue, just a shared, half-amused acknowledgment of being caught. The Backyard Sessions format — Cyrus's long-running series of live, unfussy performances filmed outdoors — has always functioned as her proof of voice, and pairing it with a pop peer turns it into something like a friendly duel. Best played loud with someone else in the car, both of you shouting the chorus, or in that self-aware hour when you admit you're going to text them back and you're fine with it.