Mac Miller: Balloonerism review – poignant second posthumous album | Mac Miller

The second posthumous album launched for the reason that loss of life of American rapper Mac Miller in 2018 ponders delusions and misplaced innocence. Drug use and loss of life are recurring themes, making it a extremely poignant pay attention: Miller by accident overdosed at 26.

Recorded throughout 2013-14, a fertile interval wherein Miller additionally launched a maturing album, Watching Motion pictures With the Sound Down (2013) and a hard-hitting mixtape, Faces (2014), Balloonerism finds him at a psychological low ebb. Concurrently, although, it reveals a flexible musician working laborious to overlay his early frat-rap repute with extra expansive work that defied style. Though Miller deserted it, he was eager for Balloonersim to be heard past the leaks unfastened on-line.

The temper attracts on soul and jazz, with funk bassist Thundercat and his brothers Kintaro and Ronald Bruner Jr lending a hand on a number of cuts. The jazzy, bittersweet 5 Greenback Pony Rides finds Miller wishing he might make his lady completely satisfied. Elsewhere, SZA is showcased on psychedelic standout DJ’s Chord Organ.

The existential triptych that closes the album is tough to listen to. “What does loss of life really feel like?” Miller wonders on Rick’s Piano. The almost 12-minute Tomorrow Will By no means Know hits laborious – particularly its lengthy, discovered sound shut, the place an unanswered phone rings emptily.