(Warner’s)
Made during a difficult time in the late rapper’s life, this abandoned work captures the musicianship and introspection of his fertile mid-career
The second posthumous album released since the death of American rapper Mac Miller in 2018 ponders delusions and lost innocence. Drug use and death are recurring themes, making it a highly poignant listen: Miller accidentally overdosed at 26.
Recorded during 2013-14, a fertile period in which Miller also released a maturing album, Watching Movies With the Sound Down (2013) and a hard-hitting mixtape, Faces (2014), Balloonerism finds him at a psychological low ebb. Simultaneously, though, it reveals a versatile musician working hard to overlay his early frat-rap reputation with more expansive work that defied genre. Although Miller abandoned it, he was keen for Balloonersim to be heard beyond the leaks loose online.
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