January, like the best teen rom-coms, is all about makeovers. You know, that moment where we vow to quit vaping/ stop being unhinged on the internet/ eat a vegetable and believe it will sort all our problems. And while some of the Dry January cohort out there are already beginning to falter, there's a simple answer: the re-energising power of pop bops.

Remember: the sudden urge to drastically change your life when confronted with the passage of time isn't just a human foible, it can be an art form. You need only look at pop divas and their many "eras" to know that - whether it's Charli XCX and her Tumblr vamp to PC Music princess to main pop girlie timeline or Beyoncé's Earth-shattering image overhauls with each album cycle. The latest to rejoin the reinvention crew? Miley Cyrus, who recently resurfaced this month to show off her freshly sun-kissed blonde hair and tease her Divorce Album Endless Summer Vacation.

Yep, it's a New Year and a New Miley. And today marks both the release of her forthcoming project's lead single, Flowers, as well as her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday (coincidence? We think not). With lyrics preaching self-love - “I can take myself dancing” and ​“I can buy myself flowers” - over dead-end relationships, it makes it clear that her New Year's resolution was never to text her ex again.

Yep, Miley's our very own accountability buddy and is teaching us to shout our positive intentions into the world with such ferocity that we can't ever go back on them. And there are plenty of other ways that this gutsy, empowering anthem can help us with our own self-improvement projects. At the surface level, there's the obvious dopamine high that comes whenever a beloved artist returns with a new bop. But the science behind comeback songs - and what they can do for our state of mind - goes deep.

See, music is a powerful motivational tune and the more upbeat, the better. A 2010 study conducted by researchers at Liverpool John Moores University revealed that the tempo of music could majorly help participants' reach higher levels of performance. The paper tracked how quickly 12 male students cycled depending on the speed of the music they were listening to simultaneously. And you can probably guess the results from the Ibiza classics which are pumped out during your spin class: music with a speedier beat helps get your exercise efforts in gear and allows you to pedal through the pain.

This is backed up by plenty of studies elsewhere. Data from from a 2017 paper, by Paul Elvers and Jochen Steffens, found that music can evoke a greater sense of motivation and mood regulation and even boost self-esteem and self-confidence. This, of course, doesn’t just the end of there, either. Researchers Stefan Koelsch, Tobias Bashevkin, Joakim Kristensen, Jonas Tvedt and Sebastian Jentschke discovered that music has a pretty noticeable impact on emerging thoughts and moods. The 2019 research revealed that “heroic”, upbeat music resulted in more positive and motivating outcomes.

So, don’t just take our love for Miley Cyrus at face value: there’s data to prove that binge-listening to her main character energy new album really can do you some good, whether it's powering through the winter slump or smashing your January goals.