Mac Month: Coming in at #4...
- Hank Golding
- Sep 7, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 11, 2020
To start Mac Month, and coming in at #4 in Mac Miller’s discography, is Circles. Miller released his first and likely last posthumous album on January 17th 2020. The album, Circles, was recorded along with Jon Brion immediately following the recording sessions of Swimming. The album, as Brion stated, was meant to be a companion piece to 2018’s Swimming. While Swimming explored topics of fighting, but doing so successfully, Circles emanated acceptance. Acceptance of his psyche, of his situation. There are clear counterexamples, most notably the single of the album, titled Good News. In this single, he croons about people not accepting him for who he is, they don’t like him when he’s down, but are so uncomfortable when seeing him succeed. He becomes a catch-22 to those who listen to his music. He can only come out on bottom. And sure, he laments this notion. This isn’t a situation most anyone would like to find themselves in, but Miller does. And he’s okay with this. Complicated best exemplifies this aspect strung throughout the album. In Complicated, he just wants to stay young. He wonders about how he got here, and how it became so different. The song, lyrically is similar to Swimming’s 2009. But it is noticeably happier. Whereas Swimming felt nostalgic and bittersweet, with an emphasis on bitter, Circles is altogether more at peace and optimistic. This is a man swimming in circles. This was achieved per Miller’s prerogative. He is swimming in circles, but after much consternation and pain, he is enjoying the experience.
Miller’s lyrics are, as the rest of the components of the album, gentle. They feel similar yet tangibly different from the lyrics of swimming, in both content and structure. They are complementary, as intended. Miller has evolved as a lyricist. In GO:OD AM, he raps about the club and about his struggles but mainly how alcohol and excessive pride hide his struggles. In Watching Movies With The Sound Off, he is more introspective, yet entirely more broad in his topics. He raps of the human condition, not his own. In Faces, easily, he becomes the most introspective, exemplified by songs like Diablo and Colors and Shapes. This album lyrically is the most personal since Faces. He croons about his life. In Blue World, he sings “Think I lost my mind, reality’s so hard to find”. In Once Every day, Miller sings “Don’t ask me what I think, it never really mattered what I had to say”. There are clear themes of acceptance with his condition. The prior line is not sung with bitterness, nor a resigned apathy. Rather a true acceptance. Mac Miller’s delivery, as it always has been, is instrumental to the meaning of the lyrics. On Faces, he raps and sings with a melancholy. If sung and rapped as he does on Circles, Faces would be a far more benevolent mixtape.
The production on the album is laid back and jazzy. It feels comfortable. There is an intrinsic relaxation diametric to the production of nearly every single track on the album. There are fast paced songs. There are slow songs. He raps and he sings. Sings isn’t quite correct the terminology, rather, he croons. The vocals on the album are reminiscent of sing heavy songs from both GO:OD AM and the Divine Feminine such as ROS and Stay. This feels a natural extension from Swimming, as Swimming, up to Circles, was his most singing heavy and slowest album. The production uses both features and obvious samples sparingly, rather relying on cyclical chord progressions often borrowed or slightly modified from his earlier works. The cyclical nature of the beats reflect the lyrical content of the song, accentuating it in a subtle yet stunning manner. The only fault in this album is lack of transitions. However this was never a particular strength of Miller’s, outside of Swimming. This album does not conform to typical album structure. Whereas a typical album will have a light portion to start, followed by a darker section, and often ending on a middle note (classic examples being Blonde and Taboo), this album does the opposite. It starts melancholy. It moves to a medium section. Continues becoming lighter in feeling, and ends on a note befitting to Millers life—hopeful, sad, and all too self cognizant.
This album is a fitting end to the life and career of Mac Miller. With this album, he had nothing to prove, but he proved it all. He completed his own personal evolution. He came full circle. Miller is a legend, as iconoclastic as they come. He proves it without a doubt on this unique, experimental, beautifully bittersweet album.
Tracklist Ranking
1. Once a Day
2. Hand Me Downs
3. Complicated
4. Blue World
5. Good News
6. Circles
7. Woods
8. Surf
9. I Can See
10. Hands
11. That’s on Me
12. Everybody
Score: 8.6/10
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