Balloonerism: Mac Miller's posthumous album 'raw and unpolished' 
2025-01-20
Category: entertainment

For the second time in the seven years since his death, Mac Miller fans have the chance to listen to a new album.The US rapper was 26 when he died from an accidental overdose in 2018. Friends say he was lost in his prime and fans' hunger for new music has remained.Balloonerism, released on Friday to generally positive reviews, follows the 2020 posthumous release of Circles, made of unfinished work completed after he died. Collaborators say the studio tracks first laid down more than 10 years ago used in the new album have barely been changed.Some of those who worked on the new release - who were present at the recording sessions - describe the finished product as haunting, raw, and unpolished.Circles was a big success but a mixed reception to recent posthumous albums from other artists has caused critics to question whether less is more when it comes to releasing music after death.
Audio engineer Josh Berg was in the LA studio, known as the Sanctuary, where Mac wrote and recorded all his material between 2013-2014. "I always hoped this day would come," he says of Ballonerism's final release. "And now it's kind of sad."Everything except one thing is amazing about this situation. It really makes me feel his loss."
Mac Miller, real name Malcolm James McCormick, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and started making music at school.His debut album, Blue Slide Park, was the first independently released record to top the Billboard 200 chart in 16 years and all of his later albums followed the same path to the top five in the US. He wrote Balloonerism between labels in 2014 and producer Eric Dan, who worked with Mac since he was a teenager, tells Newsbeat he was "just starting to come into his own"."That period was like a creative renaissance for him," he says. "He was a creation machine."Josh says so many projects were started in that time but Balloonerism was among the ones that came closest to release, with Mac even getting to the stage of commissioning artwork.While Circles was "in pretty rough shape" when he died and finished off by producers, Eric says Balloonerism is largely untouched."We made a conscious decision to keep things as they were and not go back and 'fix' mistakes, tune things or add anything."The rough edges were part of its charm and highlighted where Mac was creatively at that time."Josh describes the result of leaving in those imperfections as an album that's "raw and emotional", even "extremely haunting" in the context of Mac's death. "Once you start pulling everything apart and dusting it off, it starts to lose its magic," Josh says. "It's beautiful to release an album that's not so scoured of imperfection, that's authentic and real."
It's that question of authenticity which troubles some fans about music released after an artist has died. In 2024, posthumous albums released by the families of SOPHIE and Juice WRLD had mixed responses. While SOPHIE's was named Rough Trade's album of the year, some critics considered it too "safe" for such a pioneering and experimental talent. Robin Murray, editor-in-chief at Clash magazine, reviewed Juice WRLD's third posthumous album, The Party Never Ends.The US rapper died two years after Mac, also from an accidental overdose, leaving a cache of unreleased music but Robin tells Newsbeat the latest album sounded like "unfinished demos that had been stretched"."Releasing an album or body of work after an artist has passed away is an incredibly difficult and complex task," he says."There's no telling how the artist would have proceeded with that work, if they would have proceeded at all." Josh and Eric agree it's fair to question how Mac might have changed Balloonerism but they both believe it was always his plan to be release it when the time was right.Eric also says that after "bootleg" versions of the album were leaked, it was important an official release, in line with Mac's most up-to-date track lists, allowed the family to regain control of the album. "I can certainly see where people have concerns with it," Josh accepts."I was less concerned but now in this process maybe I shared more of that concern as we got closer."He would always change the playlist, he would always do something I'd never expect, so it will never really be true to him."
'Brushing away the myth'
The release of Balloonerism coincides with what would have been Mac's 33rd birthday and a companion film was shared alongside it.At a sold-out screening in London, fan Conor Grovestock says it felt like the last opportunity to "share thanks for the artist that he was".Most of the fans who spoke to Newsbeat say they had no reservations about the album being released but Conor says the passage of more than 10 years "does make it more complex"."It's sad, at some point it does have to end but I'm all here for it for now."Another fan, Carolina, says she "didn't give it too much thought, because I'm just a sucker". "I just want more, everything he made and was ready to be released, I'd like to be released." 
Robin says the success of Circles was in part due to how closely Mac's family worked with people who knew him. Eric, for example, worked on all his music and knew him for a decade, while Josh "pretty much lived in the studio" with Mac during the writing and recording sessions. He says the family "really lead the way in showing how tenderness and care can be accomplished within posthumous projects"."Circles felt like a very well-judged, well-curated farewell to a special talent."Balloonerism will hope to replicate that success and has gone down well with critics, branded "poignant" in a four-star Observer review. The Independent says it "feels complete and cohesive... a wonderful, albeit unsettling, reminder of a talent lost".However Robin says it's important to know when enough is enough. "One thing that Mac and SOPHIE had in common was that the evolutionary leaps between their projects were just gargantuan and there's a temptation for fans to see how these steps were taken," he says.But, Robin adds: "There's a danger of brushing away the myth and over-explaining."There is that temptation to open the door once more into the vault but I think less is more, certainly with posthumous albums."
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