By Abigail VanNatta, Guest Writer
Mac Miller’s latest posthumous album “Balloonerism” is one hour and one minute of playful, creative freedom in the midst of dark themes.
The rapper, who died of an accidental drug overdose in September 2018, recorded “Balloonerism” in 2014, at the same time as his critically acclaimed album “Faces.” It was released in January and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Prior to “Balloonerism,” Miller’s estate, in collaboration with Warner Bros Records, released older music of Miller’s, including the single “That’s Life” in 2019, the album “Circles” in 2020, and the mixtape “I Love Life, Thank You” in 2022.
“Balloonerism” feels like an experience, a nostalgic look into the past with a sense of hope for the future in both sound and lyrics. Songs like “Do You Have a Destination?” and “Mrs. Deborah Downer” sound like running, out of control thoughts over the sound of a memory – somber, but familiar.
Themes of escalating drug use, death and existentialism hide in plain sight, like they do in most of Miller’s work. It’s masked often with a humorous tone and cynical lyrics that make the bad times start to feel nostalgic and comforting, while listeners hold onto the quiet, weighted foreshadowing of Miller’s death. In “Funny Papers,” Miller sings, “Somebody died today / I saw his picture in the funny papers / Didn’t think anybody died on a Friday.” Miller died four years later on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018.
The closing track, “Tomorrow Will Never Know,” is an almost 12-minute song that moves slowly and follows a loosely-tied melody. The sound of children playing can be heard throughout the entire song along with a hazy, distant automated voice saying “Your call has been forwarded to an automated…” In the last three minutes of the song, the music stops and comes back in in a distant hum, under the eerie sound of a phone call ringing over and over with no answer to come.
Still, there’s humor throughout the album, lightening the heavier lyrics and easing the uneasiness.In “Excelsior,” Miller describes the simplicity of childhood prior to adulthood, and says “Me, I used to want to be a wizard, when did life get so serious?” The song ends with Miller’s echoing voice laughing as he repeats “Abracadabra,” over overdriven, slightly fuzzy music and the same, distant sound of children playing.
The humor appears again in the opening of “Rick’s Piano,” when the listener hears Miller telling Recording Engineer Josh Berg a knock-knock joke:
“Who’s there?
Rick Rubin.
Rick Rubin, who?
Rick Rubin’s Piano.”
Then comes the repetition of the line, “The best is yet to come,” pitched both high and low and then layered in experimental voices that make the track feel like a group of people all talking in a room down the hall. Mixed with the humorous opener, listeners don’t know whether to smile or feel unsettled.
This era of music from Miller, the 2014 “Faces” album and now “Balloonerism”, is highly praised by fans and critics alike. He dives away from the college-frat rap sound and towards a rap genre-mix of jazz and R&B, including psychedelic sounds and lyrics to make each song feel like an experience.
PHOTO: Courtesy, Warner Bros. Records
