Mac Miller - Balloonerism (January 17, 2025)

"New" album from Mac Miller that was recorded in 2014 at the same time as the Faces mixtape

 

I've had the leak of this album for years but I really can't wait until the general public listens to this, it's seriously incredible. Yet again a totally different sound for him too, it's almost retroactively a mix of Faces and Circles

The version I have is 17 tracks and this release is only 14 so I'm interested to see what made the cut. One of the songs is Yeah which ended up being a bonus track on the re-release of Faces and one song is him shaking a tambourine for 30 seconds and that's it lol so I hope those are two of the cuts

 

Funny Papers is top 10 Mac, need it to be on this

IF I COULD JUST PAY MY RENT BY TUESDAY

 

Here for it

 

I knew this has been out there for years, and have probably heard the demos a few times, but had never given Ballonerism a formal listen. Had been waiting for the official drop on Spotify, but my impatience got the better of me and I VPN'd to New Zealand. This is so good. Pony Rides, Stoned, and Funny Papers are my favorites so far. Shoutout to Mac's family/team for continuing his legacy.

 

Funny Papers really is just unbelievably good

 

yeah this is still great and I'm so happy they put it out mostly as is, probably his most inaccessible work but also some of his best. was worried they'd tried to tone down the weirdness, cut a few minutes off Tomorrow or something but it's basically intact (only 2 songs missing from the leak but there's 2 that are new to me on here as well, Rick's Piano especially was a nice surprise)

 

Yeah, this is fucking great. Weird Mac was always my favourite Mac and this is exactly the kind of stuff I always wanted from him. Abstract, jazzy, chilled. Perfect.

 

His estate have showed exactly how to handle posthumous releases. Doesn't feel like a cash grab and just genuinely wants the world to hear this wonderfully weird music. They've set the benchmark.

 

Man, they did an amazing job with this. I'm very very familiar with the leaks and I was almost dreading my first listen because I love the songs so much but I didn't notice ANYTHING changed or removed, the songs are literally the same but they just sound a ton better now. As for the songs that never leaked, Shangri-La is nice but Rick's Piano is INCREDIBLE, that last "what does death feel like" section is absolutely devastating

Really amazing album and it's honestly a headscratcher that he never dropped this in the first place, I think it's the perfect bridge between Watching Movies and Faces (which is when it was intended to be released, between those two projects). I'm so fucking glad this is officially out now and handled with such care, the world needed to hear this album. I still miss Mac every time I hear his music, I hope we get more somehow but I know this and Circles were the only actual albums that he had finished before his passing and his estate has seemed pretty careful about releasing anything he wouldn't have done...

If this is really the last Mac release, I do really feel like it "completes" his discography. He had such a short career but also so incredibly prolific, there is so much genuine progression between each project and I feel like the official Balloonerism release fills in the final missing piece. What an incredible artist

 

I still do think MacLib will come out at some point when they're ready but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last full length solo Mac album, it's definitely a great one to end on. Josh Berg posted on reddit about the possibility of a deluxe with a few more tracks from this era which would be sick, I need He Finally Sleeps in CDQ

 

Never heard the leak before so all of this is new to me. Funny Papers hit me hard

 

If it survived the fire

 

it's been mastered already so I'd assume there wasn't just one copy of it sitting in Madlib's vault, the engineers likely have it

 

Really love this. It's basically the only thing I've wanted to listen to since Friday. Do You Have a Destination, Funny Papers, and Rick's Piano are essential Mac.

 

Still need to listen to this, haven't been in the right headspace