He’d gotten far away from the frat-boy party songs like 'Knock Knock' that had buoyed him in his teens. Miller's evolution as a person and musician was expeditious. My regrets look just like texts I shouldn't send / And I got neighbors, they're more like strangers / We could be friends / I just need a way out of my head / I'll do anything for a way out / Of my headĢ. Both Swimming and Circles are, at times, a painful litany of self-admonishment, woven together with a clever playfulness. Malcolm McCormick went hard in exploiting his insecurities. This is what it looks like right before you fall.” Because life, right? The opening line of the first song on Circles is, “Well. Miller’s family explained that this new album, Circles, is meant to complement Swimming the idea was swimming in circles.

Miller's brilliant talent as a musician (he plays just about every note you hear) is laid out in a different way in every song.

It channels The Beatles and Randy Newman, a bit of hip-hop, blues, harmonies, high highs and the lowest of lows. I was intrigued by Swimming, and had started weaving through Miller’s earlier works with more fervor, Faces, Watching Movies with the Sound Off and mixtapes, scouring tracks and lyrics to get a fuller picture of the artist.Įarlier in the month when Miller’s announced via Instagram that there was a new album being released, I was incredibly excited and sad at the same time.įirst, to set the stage, this posthumous album is beautiful. I was teaching at the time, chasing around my own kids and, generally, carrying on in a mom-ish way, despite what my playlist might suggest. In 2018, when Mac Miller (born Malcolm McCormick) passed away from an accidental drug overdose, I had been immersed in his fifth studio album, Swimming.

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