“Balloonerism” is about to run circles around the brains of Mac Miller fans the world wide.
The second posthumous album, coming Friday from the archives of the late, great Pittsburgh rap star and Warner Music Group, is one of his trippiest creations, recorded in that 2013-2015 stretch — along with “Watching Movies With the Sound Off,” “Delusional Thomas,” “Faces” and “GO:OD AM” — when Miller was getting deep into studio experimentation.
According to the statement from his estate, “Many of Malcolm’s fans are aware of ‘Balloonerism,’ a full-length album that Malcolm created around the time of the release of ‘Faces’ in 2014. It is a project that was of great importance to Malcolm — to the extent that he commissioned artwork for it and discussions concerning when it should be released were had regularly, though ultimately ‘GO:OD AM’ and subsequent albums ended up taking precedence.
It continued, “We believe the project showcases both the breadth of his musical talents and fearlessness as an artist. Given that unofficial versions of the album have circulated online for years and that releasing ‘Balloonerism’ was something that Malcolm frequently expressed being important to him, we felt it most appropriate to present an official version of the project to the world.”
The release of “Balloonerism” coincides with a short companion film by Samuel Jeroe me Mason, who directed Miller’s 2021 music video for “Colors and Shapes,” that will be screened in select cities, including Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Science Center, on Wednesday. Both screenings sold out.
The animated film “follows a group of school friends who are transfigured by the music of a chord organ and launched into a shadow world. Swallowed by the turtle of time, they must plod through the underbelly of adulthood,” according to the estate.
As for Mac and “Balloonerism,” rare is the artist a 14-track record this good to shelve. Miller, though, was a special talent with an immense musical palette who spent the bulk of his time toiling in the studio.
Abundant with elegant keyboards and warm, heavy beats, “Balloonerism” is jazzy and psychedelic with a chill, relaxed vibe. The musical flourishes are plentiful: A sultry SZA feature helps kick things off on “DJ’s Chord Organ,” Thundercat pops up with some groove-tastic bass work on the single “5 Dollar Pony Rides,” “Manakins” sounds like it could have fit on The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album, on and on.
As always, the bars are sublime, as Miller takes the usual hip-hop preoccupations of fame, money, sex and drugs into comical or metaphysical realms.
From “Do You Have a Destination”: “OK, I went to sleep famous and I woke up invisible/Rich, [expletive] miserable/At least I did Kimmel and Arsenio/my mom got it on video/that [shhh] I live for, all this other [shhh] is trivial.”
The album’s highlight, “Stoned,” comes with a cool, rockabilly guitar riff and a cinematic description of a love interest troubled by isolation and anxiety: “She never been a groupie/she just in love with the music/she loves depressing movies/something from the ’30s or ’40s/about a dependent housewife.”
What other rapper would write that verse?
“The doctor tryta analyze her,” he goes on, “cannot find anything that’s wrong with her/her parents never got along with her…I had to make a song for her.”
Like much of his output from this era, drugs, which accidentally killed him in 2018, flow freely throughout the record. Just about every reactional one gets some mention on the album, from weed to oxy to heroin.
From “Mrs. Deborah Downer,” a song about addiction: “Even pills turn to powder, babe… If pills can turn to powder, then this world could turn to ash. Everything seems so slow, but my past.”
“Balloonerism” fades out with one of his moodiest, most avant-garde pieces in the 11-minute “Tomorrow Will Never Know,” on which Miller has a sort of conversation with God about life, death and eternity over a slow, dizzying loop and the distant sound of children on a playground.
It’s a heavy conclusion to an album that doesn’t skimp on content or feel anything like thrown together.
We don’t know how much more will come from the archives — can’t be much — but with “Circles” and “Balloonerism,” so far, the estate is a solid two-for-two.
First Published: January 14, 2025, 4:45 p.m.
Updated: January 14, 2025, 5:49 p.m.