The Daily Spin, July 16
Mac Miller | Swimming
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Swimming (2018)
Artist: Mac Miller
Link:
The final album released while Miller was alive (he would pass a month after this album’s release, and Circles followed posthumously in 2020), Swimming paints a brutally beautiful picture of heartbreak and anguish, framed in a very classically Mac manner.
Yesterday, I spoke to John Henry feeling as though it dragged on forever, losing sight of its pacing over its 57-minute runtime. Swimming is a minute longer, clocking in at 58:39, but it manages its stride so much more artfully, the length feeling intentional in such a way that altering it would be a misstep - instead of having six or seven filler tracks, every one of the 13 songs on this record is its own vignette within the overarching story.
As Miller grapples with the heartbreak sprung from the demise of his relationship with Ariana Grande, the music breathes with him, sparse percussion and dreamy synths giving him just enough air to float without encroaching on his space. He sings a lot more on Swimming than he has on previous records, and it plays brilliantly here - even though his voice isn’t insanely refined, it’s authentic in a way that can’t be replicated easily.
It’s that authenticity that really floats this album for me - the earnestness that Miller takes here is such a refreshing spin on the heartbreak hip-hop that was very prevalent throughout the late 2010s, particularly - but while Drake seemed to parlay each moment of sadness into a island-life hit, Miller takes them and pivots into melancholy stories - they’re still beautifully constructed, but that sincerity drives the point home.
Rating: 9.4/10
Best Tracks: 2009; Self Care; Come Back to Earth
Worst Tracks: So It Goes