Mac Miller

I know he was talented & well-regarded, especially near the end of his life, but never really connected to his music. But this posthumous (assisted/finished by Jon Brion) album is, like, really good?

Didn't know him at all until watching this Tiny Desk concert he did just before his death, second track in particular is brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrR_gm6RqCoe

glad to hear the posthumous LP is good

I have a feeling that Good News is gonna be this gen’s What I Got

admittedly the only thing I knew about mac miller until today was that he was ariane grande's boyfriend, he was a white rapper, and that he was dead from an OD. depending on who you are and what you are into, those components may or may not make him someone interesting to you, I don't know. for whatever reason each one of those components would normally make me at least marginally curious, but I admit that I write off 'white rapper' almost immediately in most cases. anyway this is a lot of words to say that any preconceptions I had about this album were 100% wrong, this is like a psychedelic downbeat Beck album and it's really good. while listening to it i kept forgetting he had died and found myself wondering what his next album would sound like. A real loss.

Besides “good news” and “right” none of the songs have the “wow factor” for me but Jon Brion did a great job in here. It might be one of the best posthumous releases I’ve heard because it doesn’t feel like a cash grab. The album sounds amazing (possibly the best a Mac Miller album ever sounded) and makes sense in the context of his previous albums and where he wanted to push his sound.

Oddly enough “Right”, which is my favorite track wasn’t produced by Brion but features great bass work by Thundercat.

akm, I shared all your preconceptions/reservations, and I am also really pleasantly surprised by how much I like this album.

The one other thing I knew about him was that some of my college-aged recovering drug addict friends who were somber when Lil Peep died were shedding real tears over Mac Miller's passing. Prior to that, his was just another name to me; I had no idea his fans felt such a deep emotional connection with him/his music. That sparked my curiosity, but I would have felt morbid diving into his music right then, so I didn't.

IIRC, Swimming was celebrated on its release for moving towards that "psychedelic downbeat Beck" style -- listening to that one now for the first time, it seems to be of a piece with Circles.

Circles was actually the sequel to Swimming so you’re right.

At the time of his death on September 7, 2018, Miller was "well into" the recording process of Circles. It was intended to be a companion album to Swimming (2018), with "two different styles complementing each other, completing a circle" and the concept being "swimming in circles". Jon Brion, who worked with Miller on the album, completed production "based on his time and conversations" with Miller. Swimming and Circles were planned to be the first two installments in a trilogy of albums, where the last piece would have been "a pure hip-hop record", as described by Brion.

Wow, crazy that this album was 2020. I've seen zero discussion of it in any EOY type of way (which maybe isn't surprising, given 2020 + the fact that it was a posthumous album released in January).

Plenty of discussion out there... Needle Drop this week gave “Good News” his #1 song of the year, which ought to have many of his followers reconsidering it. KCRW, Complex, Vulture and Uproxx had Circles in their top 10 albums of 2020.

I guess he’s another ILM blindspot.

While the album itself hasn’t appeared in every single EOY list, I’ve seen “Good News” in several songs lists.

Cool, I've looked at very few EOY lists, so I don't know why I even said that (just basing it on ILM I guess)

I saw the album on the Esquire best of list which was surprisingly filled with interesting stuff I hadn't listened to this year (like Moses Sumney, which I also love now). I think Miller is unfortunately now more famous for those elements I listed above than his music, which is too bad.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/04/bd/0604bd61a5da6ec7f321ba5a3b205ee4.jpg

nothing to add, just love that photo.

Mac Miller is an ilm blindspot in some ways ... an ilxor famously gave one of his albums a pitchfork 1.0

The one other thing I knew about him was that some of my college-aged recovering drug addict friends who were somber when Lil Peep died were shedding real tears over Mac Miller's passing

I would submit that this is more an age gap situation — Mac Miller had a 7 year start on peep career wise

when he died someone shared this exact clip on twitter. I'd never heard of him before, have been a fan since.

RIP MAC MILLER (2018 Tiny Desk). pic.twitter.com/NRZszx01LN

— Viewer Discretion Advised Podcast (@DiscretionPod) September 7, 2020

^that's the only song of his I really like. Just went back and listened to Swimming and Circles due to this thread and nothing else stood out. Even on "What's the Use" I could do without his contribution.

Check out the extra tracks, they both feature Thundercat which is one of the main reasons “what’s the use?” works imho.

Night time show performances are usually a mixing mess and this is no exception but this came up on my recommendations feed today and it's a brilliant performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVhWMlQUPkk

I really like the Circles album. It stuck with me most of last year--a kind of fell good summertime album. Ironically for a posthumous release in January.
I'm not familiar with his other stuff, but I watched a tribute concert on Youtube and everyone seemed to say the same things about him: He was a huge supporter of he underground hip hop scene in LA and boosted a lot of careers without really taking credit, and that he was very humble and funny.