Explications
Close readings of Mac Miller's catalog. One song at a time, one album at a time. Working through the Swimming in Circles arc.
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2009 — A Letter to the Song He Made in the Dark
Improvised in a pitch-black booth two years before anyone heard it. A Chanté Moore piano sample becomes the foundation for a song about belonging to yourself for the first time.
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Good News — The Performance of Wellness
People only want to hear you're doing well. This song knows that, names it, and then asks the question the whole album has been circling: what's on the other side?
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Blue World — The Song That Refuses to Stay Down
A 1952 torch song gets chopped into a beat that refuses to be lonely. Guy Lawrence brings the electronic edge, Mac brings the ease, and somewhere in there is a working theory of resilience: don't trip.
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Circles — Drawing the Shape of the Thing That Has You
The thing about drawing circles is that you have to keep moving to stay in place. A close reading of the title track — and the case that the album loops back to itself, on purpose, in the harmony.