Mac Miller - Circles - Review

I'm writing this in a rather emotional state, last night Mac Miller's posthumous album "Circles" was released, a companion piece to his last album while he was still with us, "Swimming", which if you know me, you'd know it was, and still is one of my favourite musical works of art ever, and this record has had me feeling all kinds of ways, I've cried to songs like "Everybody" and I've screamed out the words to songs like "Blue World" (yes all this in the space of 24 hours, I wasn't that busy). Although it is a posthumous release, Mac had left the album behind almost complete, the only things missing being a couple verses and the mixing and mastering to perfect it, but those were eventually taken care of by his estate along with Jon Brion's amazing, and I mean amazing in every sense of the word's, production that gives the whole record a lush, thoughtful and introspective piece of art. "Circles" is the companion piece to one of the most melancholic albums ever, a piece of Mac's sadness and depression, as well as a piece of Mac's happiness and the bright, shiny-eyed boy from Pittsburgh who put out albums like "Blue Slide Park" and "The Divine Feminine", whereas "Circles" is Mac coming to terms with none of this really having any impact on anything at all, that life is short and death is natural, so why not be okay with it. Giving us the duo "Swimming" in "Circles" which I almost read as Mac dealing with emotional and heavy stuff while also realizing, 'Hey, none of this matters, fuck it', therefore contradicting himself and as the two album's titles would suggest, he would end up swimming in circles, overcoming yet falling back to what once reached out and grabbed him from the depths of the water. Mac effectively proves that he isn't afraid to go, and reassures his fans that even once he's gone, everything is gonna be alright, and not to worry about where he is and how he's doing, wherever he may be. I once said "Swimming" was Mac's magnum opus, for where his discography was at there and then, and I gotta say, "Circles" might have taken its spot, it resonates on so many levels with me that it seems like it was crafted for anyone who would care to take a listen, even those just passing through, that it was made for no one, yet everyone.

Here are my highlights from the record;

-"Blue World": This song is the most upbeat on the record, which with the content of the rest of the record, I needed at least one of (although there is also "Complicated" and "Hands") them to have a more obvious bridge from "Swimming" to "Circles", the song is about not thinking too deep into anything, the main part of the hook consisting of the phrase 'Don't Trip' which is famously a term Mac was pretty fond of, and even featured on the hat he wore in his NPR Tiny Desk Performance, but simultaneously being lonely, most likely telling himself not to trip, to chill out not think too much into it. Jon Brion flips the intro's sample in a super unexpected way and gives the whole song another breath of life after the sample first plays.

-"Good News": As the first single leading up to the record, "Good News" really stands out on the record too, something I find difficult about albums nowadays is that the singles tend to lose themselves in the record, or in some other cases, are the best songs on the album (sorry Harry Styles ://), but "Good News" manages to play both parts, be both sides of that coin. Mac sounds heavenly on this song, it sounded like he was leaving on this one. The hook is infectious yet profound, touching on Mac's anxiety when it comes to other people's expectations of him, as well as what he aspires for, a better life on the "other side", whether he was directly referring to death or not is up for interpretation, but given other lines on the album, your mind goes directly to that thought.

-"Everybody": A cover of the band Love's "everybody's gotta live", with some of Mac's trademark flair is without a doubt, my favourite off the project. Although the original has a lot of charm and its own appeal, I think Mac did the song more than just justice. Funnily enough I had only heard the original as part of the "Jojo Rabbit" soundtrack a couple weeks prior to the release of "Circles". Everything about this song affects me greatly, from the initial drop of the drums, to the harmonizing performed by Mac, to the beautiful piano that I assume was produced by Jon Brion but could've easily been Mac, because this song just feels like him, it feels like he's talking to me from across an empty room, telling me what's happening in his head and just getting everything out and putting it on the table. Other than the hook, I hadn't even realized how little he actually changed the rest of the lyrics on the song, that's how much it felt like it came from him, its like Love had written it with Mac in mind.

-"Hand Me Downs": This is the first song of Mac's to feature a prominent vocal feature since his 2016 album "The Divine Feminine" and wow, for a feature I had never heard of, Baro Sura blew me away on this track, so much so that at first I thought Frank Ocean had stepped up and dropped a feature on the album. The instrumental is gorgeous, it really had me waving my hands like I was at a Mac concert (although I'm trying not to be sad about his passing, not ever being able to see Mac live is going to haunt me forever, R.I.P. Malcolm). The sentiment on this track outshines the instrumental by the smallest bit, he talks about finding his "one", and settling down with a family which is really really depressing, for such a beautiful song, this one had me really really sad.

-"That's On Me": This is one of Mac Miller's best melodic songs and that's without a doubt, it has so much emotion poured into it that its nearly exploding with sentiment. Mac obviously felt guilty about the amount of effort he put into one of his relationships, that he might've been distant and felt bad for it, he's just assuring them that it isn't their fault, that its on him and he doesn't know how he can fix himself. Not sure how much of it Jon Brion produced but whoever directed the instrumental vision on this song had an amazing idea in mind and put it to good use on this one.

"Circles" didn't disappoint in any shape or form, it lived up to the hype it deserved, and was the epitome of doing an artist justice through a posthumous release. It was perfect in my eyes, and somehow toppled his last release that was "Swimming", that still to this day is perfect in my eyes, a groovy, melancholic and inspiring set of projects that will go down in history as a Mac's masterpiece. Mac Miller wasn't like Everybody, he was Somebody to Everyone. Most Dope Forever.

9.5/10