Image credit: Mac Miller’s Estate under exclusive license to Warner Records Inc.
On the five-year anniversary of Circles comes Balloonerism, the next (and probably final) Mac Miller album released after his death. While Circles was completed posthumously due to Mac’s accidental overdose during recording, Balloonerism was left almost entirely untouched. Recorded primarily in 2014, we are presented with a time capsule: Balloonerism is much more playful with instrumentation than earlier mixtapes, while just starting to lean into the themes of addiction and mortality that he explores in later releases.
This experimentation can be heard on the album’s opening single, ‘DJ’s Chord Organ’. The ‘DJ’ here doesn’t stand for disc jockey, though — Mac was given the organ by Daniel Johnston’s estate, after helping to produce the documentary Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston?. This inclusion sets the mood for the rest of the album; by sonically associating himself with the cult lo-fi artist, he indicates the record will have a more introspective tone.
The track itself opens with what sounds like a demo of Mac tinkering with different chords, before blossoming into a highly layered soundscape where a female vocal can be heard. Then, the gain-heavy bass kicks in, and it becomes clear that the vocals are from SZA, reflecting on her lover’s long-distance travels to her. Though each part of the track seems random, their weaving together reminds us that this is a Mac in transition, his evolving style captured by demos like these.
His own vocals, too, start to reveal themselves on Balloonerism. Drowning in reverb and layers, it is still obvious that Mac was new to singing, his range not nearly as developed as in 2016’s The Divine Feminine. Songs like ‘Friendly Hallucinations’ showcase this then-new style of hook. Like most of the other vocal-heavy tracks, Thundercat gets a producing nod in the song’s credits. The two collaborated frequently (Mac’s 2017 Tiny Desk with him is a highlight) and tracks like these are reminders of how open and collaborative Mac’s music-making process was.
The variation in mood on this album is huge, hitting highs with tracks like ‘5 Dollar Pony Rides’. Under a bouncy Thundercat bassline, Mac flexes his keyboard skills, asking the subject, “can I give you what you want / And maybe later what you need?”. Towards the end of the album comes ‘Transformations’, a similarly light, if less polished, tune featuring Mac’s alter-ego Delusional Thomas delivering bars comparing people to farts. The instrumentation is made to sound discordant, but still doesn’t quite work, a rough outtake from Mac’s early evolution.
However, Balloonerism doesn’t shy away from the darker themes he’d come to explore in Faces, which was recorded just after this. The last two tracks on this record serve as a prelude to his next effort, exploring mortality in detail. ‘Rick’s Piano’ was partially recorded on the upright at Rick Rubin’s house, where Mac stayed after a heavy lapse into addiction. Here, he repeatedly asks “what does death feel like?’ and ‘why does death steal light?”, as well as more symbolic bars like “I wonder if the deaf father ever hear his daughter scream”. These questions are answered by the same hook, this time of Mac repeating that “the best is yet to come”. We catch him at a low point here, and can retroactively listen relieved — in terms of success, the “best” did come for him after Balloonerism, with all his later albums being well-received.
The standout on Balloonerism has to be ‘Funny Papers’, which is a perfect blend of these two states of mind, and a track that wouldn’t have sounded amiss on Circles. It opens with a sole piano line, tugging at the heartstrings before Mac’s verse even starts. When the laid-back drum track hits, he opens announcing that “somebody died today”, saying he “didn’t think anybody died on a Friday”. In a cruel twist, Mac died on a Friday too.
He continues to twist these complex stories throughout the track, with the second verse reflecting on death’s opposite, as we find Mac observing the emotions surrounding the birth of a child. Especially in his later work, he became more vocal about wanting children (check his YouTube cover of ‘Isn’t She Lovely’) and hearing the thought voiced again is a reminder of how much more Mac could have become.
Though the release of Balloonerism in its raw state may have surprised some fans, it is safe to say that the record justifies itself. Mac is by turns funny, experimental and vulnerable, a near-perfect illustration of his musical character. The project was also, according to his estate, “of great importance to Malcolm”, having commissioned the album art already and raising release dates in talks. Releasing an official, mixed version of the album does right by his legacy, and provides fans with a little community and closure.
8/10
