Mac Miller’s Balloonerism is a posthumous album since his passing in 2018 from a drug overdose. Mac Miller was a beloved artist within the music industry, with 17 released albums. The album Balloonerism was worked on between 2013-2014 about the same time as his album Faces was being worked on. Balloonerism has 14 tracks, with a nostalgic and psychedelic feel to it.
Funny Papers being the highest-ranked track on Billboard 100 at #77 has Mac Miller’s fans mourning him through his music as he’s still giving his listeners art from the beyond. The song starts with playing upbeat piano chords as the listener hears Mac Miller’s voice softly echo “Did no one ever teach you how to dance?/nobody ever taught you how to dance?/well, well, everyone knows how to dance.” With a beat drop after his monologue to allow a feeling of release.
Out of the 14 songs featured on Balloonerism, my personal favorite is Stoned. The song starts with a sick guitar solo providing a very deep, yet loose sound. This solo plays throughout the beginning and chorus of the song, all while being complemented by Mac Miller’s contemporary rhyming. These features seamlessly blend together to produce a psychedelic funk feeling. “She hardly talks in conversation/ all her words get lost in translation/ no, she can’t move/ because she’s paralyzed from fear that she fantasizes/ the doctor tried to analyze/ they cannot find anything wrong with her”. He rhymes with beats as he tells the story of a girl which many fans feel like they can relate to in one way or another.
However, the least streamed track on Balloonerism is Manakins. Mac Miller talks about his fear of being “normal” and what is deemed normal in our society. I quite like the take he has on this song and his lyrics. He uses “We are what we believe in/there’s no such thing as freedom/what can we do?” for the chorus and interchanges “freedom” with “believe in”. I understand this song as we are told that we can do anything and change the world, but from an ordinary person’s perspective it’s kinda difficult to be that “superhero” that is advertised.
Overall, Balloonerism is a good album that gave Mac Miller’s fans more to hold on to. This album meant everything and more to his fans as some of the songs were known as unreleased songs and to have them officially come out on an album gave fans a feeling of satisfaction. Mac Miller has left his mark on the music industry.
