Album Cover // Warner
By: Jordan Sarver-Bontrager
Media Writer
Dear reader, I have a confession to make: I’ve never listened to anything by Mac Miller. This isn’t because I have little interest in his work; I’ve just never gotten around to listening to his music.
I heard from friends that this new album, Balloonerism, is one of his best, and I am pleased to say that I enjoyed it a lot.
We start on the intro track, Tambourine Dream, which is just 30 seconds of a tambourine being played at a frantic tempo. Then the follow up song and true start to the album, DJ’s Chord Organ (feat. SZA); a song with a very unique soundscape, it sounds both juvenile and sorrowful at the same time. I enjoyed this track.
Do You Have a Destination and 5 Dollar Pony Ride are the next two tracks, and both have tasty neo-soul production styles (almost as if that’s the genre of the album). Very enjoyable songs. Mrs. Deborah Downer is about the struggle of drug addiction, and considering how Mac Miller passed away, this song is a particularly difficult listen. Stoned, a similar track, follows it. Miller is talking about burying the pain he feels with drugs. It’s another particularly depressing song.
We arrive then at Shangri-La, another downbeat song, but what stuck out to me was the lyric “If I die young, promise to smile at my funeral.” Mac Miller recorded this album back in 2014, four years before his passing, making that line particularly haunting and prophetic.
Funny Papers is my favorite track on the album. Mac asks, “why does it matter at all?” and talks about the positive and negative things one might see in a newspaper, which he refers to as “funny papers”. It’s a devastating song.
The album begins jetting towards its conclusion with the frantic Excelsior, the odd Transformations (feat. Delusional Thomas) and the melancholic Manakins. This takes us to the final two tracks on the album, Rick’s Piano and Tomorrow Will Never Know. The former is about being positive in the face of overwhelming depression. It’s a devastating song given what ultimately happens to Mac, but it’s beautiful. The latter is a behemoth at 11 minutes, 52 seconds in length. It’s a very contemplative track with a long outro.
Overall, as this is my first experience with Mac Miller, I was enamored with the album and this makes me want to check out more of his work. I loved the production on this album; it perfectly captures a moody tone, which I’m sure was the intent for this record. Mac Miller was a wonderful artist who has gone far too soon, and he has my respect. I’m feeling a 9/10 on this album.