The accidental overdose of Mac Miller in September 2018 is one of the few celebrity deaths that shook me to my core. Just a month after the release of his fifth studio album, Swimming, Miller’s death felt like it came unfairly, at the peak of his career.
Then along came Circles, his posthumous album. Existing as a mellow epilogue to Swimming, the album discusses themes of fame and mortality, dreaming and drowning — a cruel irony less than a year and a half after his death.
As you’d expect from the album title, Miller uses cyclical motifs extensively: from the repetition of the lyrics “That’s on me, that’s on me, I know” in the aptly titled That’s On Me to the guitar loops used Good News, Surf, and the titular track, Circles. His desire for personal growth is also a strong theme, even though it seems like he can never break from his own circles. He makes reference to his substance abuse and sex addiction in Hand Me Downs, which also includes a touching feature from Australian rapper Baro.
Mac Miller’s tremendous lyrical ability made his career, and, although Circles is an unfinished work, the lyrics still slap. Just like his innuendo-filled previous works like The Divine Feminine and Swimming, Circles is witty at times, but the tracks that stick the most are the introspective ones. These tragically postulate life after him and yet are consistently optimistic. The album’s single Good News closes with Miller’s legacy in the lyrics “There’s a whole lot more for me waiting”, whereas Woods serves as a reminder of fame and mortality: “Yeah, things like this ain’t built to last/ I might just fade like those before me”.
Even though the album is technically unfinished, its range of genres is intricate and effortless. The waltz-like dynamics of That’s On Me ground the track in a classical romanticism, while the synthesiser-heavy I Can See reinforces how incredibly intelligent a musician Mac Miller was. His sound is not as similar to modern hip-hop and mumble rap as it could first seem: he samples timeless works like Everybody’s Gotta Live by Arthur Lee (1972) and It’s a Blue World by The Four Freshmen (1955).
Circles is minimal, personal, introspective, and truly heartbreaking even for those who aren’t familiar with his work. The 48-minute album is an emotive yet incredibly effective coda to a remarkable — if short-lived — career.
