Author's Note: I am incredibly shocked and stunned by the untimely passing of Mac Miller. He was a young, evolving talent who's artistic potential was only increasing with every release, and from his interactions with fans and other people available for us to see on the internet, he appeared as a marvelous and extremely well-mannered person. To lose someone like this so young is an incredible shame. I wish him an easy rest. Although this review of Swimming is extremely positive, my opinions of the music were not made or changed by Mac's passing.
Swimming finds Mac Miller striking a perfect melancholy. Two years have passed since his 2016 release The Divine Feminine, which was a softer, more vulnerable artistic left-hook from his more traditional approach to boom-bap hip-hop on 2015's GO:OD AM. Neither album stopped me in my tracks, particularly the former - Mac's obsessed approach to his relationship was crushingly overbearing, spinning unsubtle poetic about his then-new relationship with singer Ariana Grande. Swimming continues the more open, emotional rhetoric of his last project, but this time Mac has scaled back on all of his worst impulses and created an album of raw introspection and gorgeous instrumentation, and a work of art far above the potential he demonstrated in the past. From the shakily but happily sung intro 'Come Back To Earth' to the focused, climactic ending of 'So It Goes', Miller slips not once, having created the 13 best songs of his career. Miller blends hip-hop with a modern neo-soul taste, rapping on all but one track and incorporating singing (his own and of others) across the majority of the record. The opening suite includes tracks like 'Hurt Feelings' and 'What's The Use?', both funky, fun rap tracks, despite their titles (the former produced by J. Cole, a not-so-common sight on a non-Cole project these days) where Mac quietly speaks to himself about change; "I keep my head above the water / My eyes is gettin' bigger, so the world is gettin' smaller / I've been gettin' richer but that only made me crazy". The instrumentals, like the rest of the album, are fantastic highlights - 'Hurt Feelings' is a bassy, head-nodding beat with chords that spiral out of control as Mac sings the chorus, and 'What's The Use?' is without doubt the funkiest beat of the year. This is, of course, credited to the appearance of the bass-master Thundercat, (who if you weren't aware, contributed extensively to the greatest album of the last generation) who's grooving bass rhythms are just undeniable. I can't stress how great his bass playing is here, and when he contributes backup vocals to the end of the track (accompanied also by Snoop Dogg and The Internet's Syd) the track reaches a near-divine status. Mac himself flows like water on his verses, too - when he says "Well I'ma give you what you came for, yeah / Shit, I've worked too hard to have a clue who you are / Set the bar so far above par, we can parlay all day / Crib long range with the yard" he weaves in and out of bars seamlessly and effortlessly, with a fun internal-rhyme to boot. Mac Miller the MC is improved more here than ever before. The instrumental focus of Swimming consistently impresses. In terms of groove and energy, the beats down-shift gears from this point on, but the soft tones and welcoming environment of the music make up for this fantastically. I would like for this review to be more than a one-by-one in order breakdown of the track list, but it would do Swimming injustice not to mention every last track. Dead center of the album is 'Ladders', the single exception from the downcast vibe of the album - it starts slowly, with gradually building layers of instrumentation - a buzzing drone, quiet synths, Mac's singing, a few keyboard chords, a clapping rhythm, piano - but one minute in, the drums burst in with the trumpets right behind, and the groove from earlier in the album makes it's final reappearance for a fantastic, vibrant song. Horns blare during the break, and an icy noise that sounds like cold winding blowing breezes through every once in a while. Either side of this track, however, the album is in a completely different space - the track before this, 'Wings' is an extremely quiet moment. Simply a rubbery bass-line and sparse drums, Mac takes center-stage and talks about his emotional healing. "Wind in my face, don't stop now when it feels so great / You can run 'til you slip on the sidewalk" raps Mac, fearing that what brings him happiness can also bring him down, and his line "Growin' up (One, two, three) jump" is exceptionally poignant - he cuts himself short with the word "jump" before he even finishes saying "three". The track that follows "Ladders', which is titled 'Small Worlds' brings the energy right back down to where it was before - a slow, joyous instrumental with a quiet horn section, that bubbles up into a beautiful bridge. The beat switches for the final minute of the song, leaving everything behind but for a soft piano ballad, which is actually a recurring theme of the album - 'Perfecto' switches from a synth-driven melancholy to a cold, ominous drone at the very end, and directly after this the second single 'Self Care' transitions fantastically from it's first snare-drum, organ, and strings combo halfway through the track to a far more intense, trappy, bassy, icy world as Mac powerfully croons "I was, thinking too much, got stuck in oblivion, yeah, yeah Oblivion, yeah, yeah, oblivion, yeah, yeah". The final stretch of Swimming is immensely gratifying. Stretching the final three tracks to just shy of 6 minutes each, each holds it's own irreplaceable charm and unique sound. 'Jet Fuel' has perhaps the most subdued instrumental on the album. It's slow; plucking guitar chords, played by the talented Steve Lacy of The Internet (check his work on Flower Boy, 2017's strongest album and one of the best of this decade) paired with the sound waves rolling on and off the beach open the song, before drums creep in and Miller flows at his peak: "Cause I know what you want All I wanna do is the most / Backflip off the rope, sky hook when I’m in the post / My girl too clutch to choke". He tragically reveals that the fuel is a metaphor for drugs - "Okay, okay, well Imma be here for a while longer than I did expect to / I was out of town, getting lost 'till I was rescued / Now I’m in the clouds, come down when I run out of jet fuel / But I never run out of jet fuel". (This is one of many lines on Swimming that now strike devastating blows with the new context of hindsight - "Somebody save me from myself, yeah" from 'Self Care', and "Don't wanna grow old so I smoke just in case" from 'Small Worlds' are just some examples of this.) Somber background vocals coast the track to it's end, assisted by a sole trumpeter. After a short minute of vocoded singing, the penultimate '2009' arrives with a lush, colourful, enchanting violin intro. Sounding like classical music, it's one of the most wonderful 60 seconds of music on Swimming, and sets the tone perfectly for the gentle remainder of the song. Mac sings more on this song than any other, and the heartwarming piano line is all but tear-jerking. Mac's exposed, open rhetoric manages to save his warbling, amateurish singing from being grating, and it doesn't sound that bad at all - he laments the passage of time since his youthful, pre-fame days, now a wiser and different man. "It ain't 2009 no more / Yeah, I know what's behind that door". Swimming coasts to and end on closer 'So It Goes'. Another simple affair, Mac handles the production of track himself and returns to rapping for two great final verses. The instrumental is low-key, but as a closer it works well - it plods steadily on, until shimmering organ lines interject to add infinitely to the album's sound - as Mac simply raps his thoughts. "You could have the world in the palm of your hand, you still might drop it / And everybody wanna reach inside your pockets / I tell 'em red light, stop it". Mac has mastered the art of not only writing and delivering great verses, but sounding great as he does so. A perfectly-written verse could come off bland and stale if performed wrong, but Mac knows when and where to flip his cadence, and use the highs and lows of his vocal register, and also when to pause to add effect, which he does entertainingly on the last line of the above quoted lyrics. The second verse, Mac Miller's final verse, is perhaps the best on Swimming. It's short, but to-the-point, and Mac continues to flow as great as he did on the entire album before this. His entire artistic journey is encapsulated in this one short written - there's chest-beating, ("And everyone get left behind / I'm only 5'7'', except I'm feelin' Like I'm 7'5"") lyrics about sex ("Never mind, did I mention I'm / Fine, 'cause her pussy gettin' / Redder when the weather dry"), his woes (No relaxing, kicking back, this ain't exactly in the plan / I can't get no satisfaction, goddamn), the new-found introspection, and eagerness to change for the better (They sayin' I been gone too long / I could just tell 'em fuck you, but that come on too strong), and the final, once gratifying, now tear-inducing lyric of Swimming - "my god, it goes on and on / just like a circle I go back where I'm from". Beautiful synths enter the track, Mac sings the final chorus, and a fantastic string section takes over and ride the album out to it's close. Swimming is an album of the caliber I never anticipated from Mac Miller. Light years ahead of his past work, Mac's artistry bounded to infinite heights to create what was supposed to be his first, but now his only, masterpiece. He and his producers captured an infallible soundscape and elongated it to an hour of beautiful, enjoyable, heartwarming music, and the Mac's lyrics of happiness out of darkness remain pure in the context of his life. Swimming was to be the stepping stone for a better Mac Miller - the album to begin perhaps the most artistically prosperous years of his career, a decade after he began making music for the public to hear. Now carved in stone as his final release, this album shines high above his catalog as a beautiful ending to the career of one of this decade's most pure artists. Datpiff's mixtape scene at the start of the decade undoubtedly shaped hip-hop's direction for the last 8 years, killing the bling era and giving artists a platform to grow a fan base independently with free music, and to lose one of it's biggest, pioneering artists takes a heavy toll. In light of the tragedy, I'm glad Mac completed Swimming before his death - his final artistic statement is not only the strongest of his career, but unquestionably the strongest of 2018. R.I.P. Mac Miller, 1992-2018 91/100 |
201820162015Scores0-30 = Bad
31-49 = Sub-par 50-60 = Average 61-70 = Decent 71-80 = Good 81-89 = Great 90-99 = Incredible 100 = Perfect Archives
September 2018
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