Mac Miller is an artist who I have always liked, but never really loved. I seem to always enjoy his beats and rapping ability, but something about his solo work hasn't connected with me. For the past few years, Mac's music has gone under a pretty drastic change. He went from party, college, poppy, fun music on Blue Slide Park to more calm, hazy, introspective rap on his last mixtape, Macadelic. He has also started collaborating with more underground artists, such as Joey Bada$$ and Kendrick Lamar. After seeing the tracklist for this new album, I was immediately excited. Many of the features are underground MC's whom I have been huge fans of. Will Mac Miller finally put together a great solo project here? Let's get into it.
The first song, The Star Room, was pretty experimental in terms of production. Mac pitch shifted his voice up a little for his first few bars, which I didn't really like. The track did start sounding really good once Mac started rapping normally. His flow was on point and the beat was very impressive. Surprisingly, this track was produced by Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt. The next song, Avian, was honestly boring with Mac just rapping with no energy over a generic piano beat. Possibly the best solo track on this whole album was S.D.S. which was produced by Flying Lotus. This beat was unique and sounded really sick. Mac was flowing really nicely on this as well with some funny lyrics also. This song was just very smooth and I enjoyed it. The next song, Bird Call, featured a dope beat from Clams Casino, and Mac Miller continued to impress me with his rapping.
Surprisingly, I just kept enjoying Mac Miller's solo tracks on this album. I Am Who I Am featured amazing production from Pharrell and Mac's flow was nothing new, but still very solid. Watching Movies was yet another solid track with yet another sick beat. Mac sounded a little more energized here as well, and I am still entertained with a lot of his lyrics. Unfortunately, this album started to go way downhill near the end, starting with the track Remember. This song was just so boring. Even though the lyrics were emotional and the beat was decent, the song never really went anywhere and I do not like Mac's singing voice at all. I could just copy and paste what I just wrote for my feelings on the songs Someone Like You and Aquarium. These were just too slow and got so boring. Mac Miller's lyrics also felt a lot lamer and cornier on these tracks. In my opinion, this album finished off terribly.
Now, it's time to get into my favorite part: the feature tracks. While I was very dissapointed that Earl didn't have a verse on I'm Not Real, he still sounded fantastic on the hook, which I loved. This song felt super chill and hazy all the way through, and Earl comes through making another awesome beat. Matches with Ab-Soul featured some happy production, and the beat was pretty good. Soul had a good verse and Mac flowed pretty nicely here, but there was nothing amazing about this song. My favorite song on the whole album might be Red Dot Music. This track was awesome from a production standpoint with a dope beat by The Alchemist. Mac raps pretty well here and Action Bronson had an entertaining verse. My favorite things about this track were the catchy ass hook and Loaded Lux's absolutely awesome a cappella verse at the end. He had some seriously hilarious punchlines there. Gees was another good one with some a funky beat from Chuck Inglish and a sick Schoolboy Q verse. My main problem with this track was Mac Miller, who just had a lot of stupid, trashy lines. Another undeniably dope song was Suplexes Inside of Complexes and Duplexes. Mac starts it off with a Slim Shady-type flow, but it sounded great. Jay Electronica had a terrific verse, showing some great lyricism and flowing with ease.
WATCHING MOVIES WITH THE SOUND OFF WRAP UP
+Fantastic production nearly the whole way through
+Awesome features
+Mac Miller was consistently solid rapping
+Had a cool overall vibe to it
-Pretty bad last three songs
-Mac Miller should stop singing
-He sounds pretty monotonous throughout
Best: Red Dot Music, Suplexes Inside of Complexes and Duplexes, The Star Room
Worst: Aquarium
Mac Miller- Watching Movies With the Sound Off
7.8/10
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