Jon did an incredible job producing this. Not everything clicked on first listen but I’m excited to spend more time with it.
Record is wonderful, two listens in and I really love this. Thought I would be mostly sad listening through but it's all so chill and disarming that it feels more like a big hug. So thankful this project was finished and that we all get to hear it
He's getting another Grammy nomination, I'm sure of it. Honestly this and Swimming are the only albums of his that I'm able to listen to beginning to end. No filler, all tunes.
I really dig this and love chill Mac, my only ‘complaint’ I guess I’d have after one listen is that many of the songs follow the same tone/form/format with a super chill Mac singing/rapping slowly. my guess is as I start to listen to this more and more the songs will differentiate further from each other.
and yeah, this is wonderful. i'm gonna be surprised (and delighted) if this isn't one of the best rap albums i hear all 2020
some really lovely/heartfelt thoughts by Jon Brion about some of the songs on Apple Music/Genius. his description of "Once a Day" made me cry
I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was a lot more uplifting than Swimming, when they say this was meant to be a companion piece to that album I guess this was meant to be the more positive side. Because of this I actually wasn't nearly as sad while listening as I thought it would be, it felt more like checking up on a friend than mourning one if that makes sense (although the fact that it's so much "happier" than Swimming also becomes profoundly sad when you think about the situation unfortunately). I'm actually really happy that his discography will end on a positive note, I think he would have wanted it that way. As for the music itself, it's fantastic. Doesn't feel like a posthumous album at all, feels totally complete to me, which I couldn't be happier about. Mac still just continued to evolve his sound and do something completely different, and I'm so fucking sad that we won't get to see where he was going to go next. Will forever be a tragedy that such a genuinely talented and forward-thinking artist was taken from us so soon, but I will be forever grateful for what he left us.
New York Times did a great interview with Jon Brion. most interesting info is that this was apparently planned to be a trilogy, with Swimming, Circles and a "pure hip-hop record" to finish it. also seems to confirm Ariana has vocals on "I Can See".
Makes me appreciate the album even more, Brion is a musical genius and him having such high praise for Mac is so cool/heartbreaking