The sixth studio album “Circles,” created by the late hip-hop artist Mac Miller, was released on Jan. 17.
Preceded by the release of its first single, “Good News,” on Jan. 9, the album is an interesting collection of tunes while also complementing the styles found on Miller’s previous album “Swimming.”
Background
Mac Miller, born Malcolm James McCormick, was a hip-hop artist from Pittsburgh who rose to fame through the mixtapes “K.I.D.S” (2010) and “Best Day Ever” (2011). His debut album, “Blue Slide Park,” was released in 2011 and topped the Billboard 200 chart in America. It was the first album not from a major distributor to accomplish this since 1995.
After the release of his second studio album, “Watching Movies With The Sound Off” (2013), Miller signed with Warner Bros. Records and released four albums with the company “GO:OD AM” (2015), “The Divine Feminine” (2016), “Swimming” (2018), and “Circles” (2020).
Unfortunately, Miller passed away from an accidental drug overdose on Sep. 7, 2018, at the age of 26. According to a Jan. 8 post from the artist’s family on his official Instagram account, Miller was “well into the process” of recording “Circles,” which was created as a companion album to “Swimming.”
Producer Jon Brion, who assisted Miller in crafting his previous album, helped finish the project and bring the full “Swimming in Circles” concept to life.
Highlights
1. “Circles”
Brought together through a soft acoustic guitar melody and Miller’s hazy vocals, the album’s title track painfully relates the feeling of being lost and moving from place to place without any idea of your direction. This is, in my opinion, a nice way to start off the album.
2. “Complicated”
Powered by a booming synthesizer riff with an intriguing bassline in tow, Miller explains that he is “too young to be getting old” and riffs on life’s problems. The track is soulful and relatable, showing the complications of fame and how they affect a young artist like Miller. What I love about “Complicated” is how it invokes nostalgia with its synthesizers, which makes the track feel both old and modern simultaneously.
3. “Blue World”
Sampling the 1955 song “It’s A Blue World” from the Four Freshmen, Miller reminisces on life and what it has given him accompanied by distorted and chopped vocal samples and a concrete drum beat that helps drive the track.
4. “Surf”
On the surface, this track seems formulaic, but it feels like so much more. “Surf” feels like a dreamlike state that still exists in the material plane, and it is music to my ears.
To end this review, I will say this: I’ve never closely followed Mac Miller’s work before this, but I admired him as an artist. Despite this, I personally found the “Circles” album to be absolutely enthralling while listening to it. However, the heartbreaking side to this album is that we’ll never be able to see what new paths Miller treads.
