Faces
followed
Watching Movies with the Sound Off
in just under a year. Considerably deeper and darker than the preceding album, it's classified as a mixtape -- originally a free download, revised and released by
Warner
digitally and on vinyl -- but certainly has the artistic and emotional impact of a proper LP. Within the sequence are some of
Mac Miller
's casually boastful and potent rhymes. More often, however, it shows the rapper examining his fragile state, reckoning with mortality, frankly despondent yet still able to construct ingenious cadences with lines like "I'm the only suicidal motherf*cker with a smile on."
Miller
relates his ascendancy and self-destruction in measured verging on meandering style, occasionally allowing the likes of
Thundercat
,
ID Labs
Earl Sweatshirt
, and
9th Wonder
to either assist or spell him on production. The beats, energized and bleary only when
's self-praise and most addled moments call for it, tend to sound crafted for the sake of alleviating anxiety. ~ Andy Kellman