Between the break-up with Ariana Grande and the DUI arrest that followed, the last thing Mac Miller needed was a beatdown from critics and fans.
Fortunately, the sun is shining on “Swimming,” the Pittsburgh rapper’s fifth album and third for Warner Bros. Released on Friday, it’s already drawing some of the best reviews of his career.
He woke up to a 7.5 from Pitchfork, which declared, “He’s come a long way since his overbearing kid brother act of his early ‘Blue Slide Park’ days. Where he used to mug over his music relentlessly, on ‘Swimming’ he mostly lets the beats breathe, clearing ample space for the record’s peaceful orchestral swells and blushing keyboards. He’s also singing more than ever, and he sounds better than ever doing it.”
Sure enough, no one is bouncing to the Mac record like they were to the old bangers. “Swimming” is Miller back in late-night mode, likely a little stoned, probing that swirl of thought that keeps him awake.
“My regrets look just like texts I shouldn't send,” are the first lines of the album, “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 head.”
Through the 13-song album, Miller isn’t so much swimming but floating in a cloud right above the water on delightfully chill, murky, ambient arrangements, and the message is that’s he not taking the bridge.
“Where ‘The Divine Feminine’ probed the spaces between people,” writes The Guardian, in its four-out-of-five star review. “Swimming focuses on Miller. His fifth official album is an ambling 13-song journey towards self-acceptance, one that does not end in triumph. Instead, it embraces the possibility that he’ll never have it all figured out. And, mostly, Miller seems fine with that.”
It’s not surprising, considering his tumultuous month of May that people are using the record to gauge the mental state of the 26-year-old rapper who first came along as a happy teen with “Knock Knock” and “Party on Fifth Ave.”
“It’s in Miller’s melodious baritone, stark mantra flow that ‘Swimming’ is most effective — a simple, stately, poetic autobiography. Maybe for a guy healing from a busted two-year relationship, being OK is alright.
Here is some of the reaction from fans:
YO SWIMMING BY MAC MILLER IS ONE OF THE BEST ALBUM RIGHT NOW DON’T SLEEP ON MY BOI.
— $AINTINO. (@Iamlexuscando) August 3, 2018
mac miller with yet another classic
— TIM TAYLOR (@TIMTHETOOLMANN) August 3, 2018
Mac Miller dropped a better album than Travis 🤔
— Anthony Donato (@antdonato11) August 3, 2018
I love mac miller so much, this album is just beautiful.
— ana da radical. (@_zelaznog_) August 3, 2018
His tour will begin on Oct. 27 and hit Pittsburgh, at the Petersen Events Center, on Nov. 24.
First Published: August 3, 2018, 6:05 p.m.
