by Sebastian Guccione
Opinions Editor
This January, Mac Miller posthumously released his final album, “Circles.” Mac is one of my favorite artists, and I was surprised when I heard we would be getting a new album, since he passed very shortly after the release of his last album, “Swimming.”
The album was thematically similar to “Swimming,” because it also dealt with depression, heartache, our highs and lows, and the struggle for simplicity. If I had to pick one track to represent the album, I’d pick “Complicated.” It reminds me of the feeling when you first wake up and somewhere, in the back of your mind, you know you have so much to do, but the specifics haven’t come to you yet; so you have a sense of weight that is undermined by a lack of direction.
as something very open to anything, good and bad: “Well, it’s a mad world, it made me crazy, Might just turn around, do 180.”
Many have described the album as a sort of bittersweet goodbye, and while the album is at many points somber and even distant, I saw it as much more of an introduction or a basis for what would have been Mac’s next act.
Unfortunately, when artists die, posthumous albums are often released as a quick cash grab, and are not authentic to the artist, but Mac’s label and producer Jon Brion definitely succeeded in getting his music out there in a natural way without corrupting the project.
