The first single from Mac Miller’s posthumous album ‘Circles’ was released today and it didn’t disappoint. “Good News’ has the slow, rhythmic, and melodic beats that Swimming gave us, which seemed to start becoming Mac’s style. Circles comes out on January 17th and I’ve never been so excited for an album.
The music video visuals are amazing and trippy especially the end when Mac is walking out of what looks like a plane window as an ode to the cover art of the Swimming album. I really can’t believe he’s gone. It felt weird to see him in the studio recording in the music video. I grew up with Mac in high school and used to blast K.I.D.S and Best Day Ever in my 1993 Mazda protege with the 12 inch subs in the trunk. The song “Donald Trump” still brings me back to getting drunk on the weekends in my friends basement with my boys and The Spin was the soundtrack to Senior Week. I still remember where I was when I got the news that Mac Miller had died. People die every day. Talented people. But when someone dies who isn’t much older than you and has contributed to a ton of personal memories that one hits differently. It especially hurts because his last album, “Swimming” was amazing.
Once high school passed I didn’t really listen to Mac. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Blue Side Park and Watching Movies With the Sound Off was a whole different creative direction from the getting fucked up, smoking weed, and chilling with friends type of music he used to put out, and I wasn’t interested in it. GO:OD AM and Divine Feminine I didn’t even waste my time, but when Swimming came out for some reason I dove right in. It was raw, there was a lot of pain, and it made him sound so vulnerable. The first song on the album, “Come Back To Earth”, has a line ‘I just need a way out of my head. I’ll do anything for a way out of my head’. You could feel the pain in his voice. You could feel that he was consistently in his head because his two previous albums didn’t do the numbers the label expected. It can’t be easy to burst on the scene when you’re young, sell almost 600,000 copies of your first two studio albums combined and then barely sell 100,000 between your next two.
Once Mac passed I finally dove into GO:OD AM and Divine Feminine. Divine Feminine was mostly love ballads and upbeat as his relationship with Ariana Grande helped craft that album. GO:OD AM though was the complete opposite and the album felt like a cry for help that he was dealing with a lot more then what people knew on the outside. One song that sticks out in particular is ‘Perfect Circle/God Speed”. It’s like he predicted his own death.
Like I said, I’m excited for this album and I hope Circles puts a satisfying bow on the final legend of Mac Miller. Here’s a song that came out after he passed plus his NPR Tiny Desk performance which is an all-timer to get you through the Mac Miller rabbit hole I’m sure you’ll be going down. RIP Mac.