Review: Mac Miller's 'Circles' is a gorgeous, dreamy culmination of the talented young rapper's musical journey
The prodigiously talented and still-mourned rapper Mac Miller's 'Circles' album was released posthumously on Friday, January 17. Earlier this year, his family had sanctioned the release of the album via producer Jon Brion with their blessing, stating “We simply know that it was important to Malcolm for the world to hear it.”
Malcolm McCormick aka Mac Miller tragically passed away in September 2018, leaving behind five celebrated studio albums, more than a dozen mixtapes, and a lot of broken-hearted fans who still sing his praises.
"At the time of his passing, Malcolm was well into the process of recording his companion album to ‘Swimming’, entitled ‘Circles’,” said Miller's family in an official album announcement on social media, adding that he had envisioned “Two different styles complementing each other, completing a circle — Swimming in Circles was the concept.”
'Swimming' was released in August 2018, and appeared to be Mac's measured response to losing his bearings when he lost his beloved girlfriend and muse, the pop diva Ariana Grande. While 'Swimming' seemed to signify that Mac was treading water and trying to find himself again whilst swimming to shore, you do get the feeling that the rapper was starting to pull himself together.
“My God, it go on and on/Just like a circle, I go back to where I’m from,” he philosophically states on the last song of 'Swimming' called 'So It Goes.' So it's only fitting that he got to complete the loop and fully realize himself and his tremendous potential on 'Circles'. The yin-yang concept of the two albums evokes images of duality, balance, and symmetry. It seems to signify that Mac had finally embraced his demons, made peace with his troubled mind, and truly evolved as a genre-blurring artiste.
With 'Circles' it almost seems like he's transcended labels on this album, flowing freely through swells of sparkling guitars, lo-fi beats, poignant rap, shimmering synths, and soulful indie-folk. There is not as much rapping present here as was evident in his earlier works, but that's simply because he had nothing to prove to anybody anymore. The singer was widely regarded as one of the best lyrical wordsmiths of his generation, so it's only fitting that he chose this album to showcase his growth on a personal level, as well as his maturing into a dazzlingly talented, multi-dimensional artiste. Check out his singing here on 'Everybody':
While both 'Swimming' and 'Circles' touch on Mac's attempts to work through his personal struggles with depression and negativity, there is a decidedly dogged, resilient bent to Mac's new record. He's ready for a fresh start, a more positive outlook on life and there's definitely a gentle, pragmatic realism to it all. On 'Good News' he says "I spent the whole day in my head/Do a little spring cleanin'/ I'm always too busy dreamin'/Well, maybe I should wake up instead."
And he seems to accept the struggles of the human condition on 'Surf' when he says “Sometimes I get lonely/Not when I’m alone/But it’s more when I’m standin’ in crowds that I’m feelin’ the most on my own.” But he seems to have cracked the puzzle with triumphant optimism when he says “And I know that somebody knows me/I know somewhere, there’s home/I’m startin’ to see that all I have to do is get up and go.”
Other stand-out tracks on Circles (among many) include 'Woods', 'Complicated', “Blue World', and 'Hands' - the whole album is a surreal, lush, pick-yourself-up ode to the wonders of finding freedom and liberation through love and self-acceptance. As Mac himself says on 'Woods' - "We can only go up."
All in all, 'Circles' is a brilliantly fitting conclusion to Mac Miller's legacy - it's a dreamy, moving, gorgeous musical culmination for the troubled young artiste who had grown up to become a positive-minded man. Things truly have come full circle on this one for Mac Miller, and it's given some well-deserved therapeutic closure to his millions of reverential fans.