Balloonerism - Mac Miller Posthumous Releases and Grappling with Grief in Music

I usually ignore or actively avoid posthumous releases. So often they feel like a cash grab that has been done outside of the wishes of the artists themselves. Looking at previous releases of this kind, such as unreleased works by Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Juice WRLD, all feel unfinished and far from the expected quality of the artists. That’s not to mention the sometimes questionable reasons for release! With all this contextual baggage I took into this release, there’s still something compelling and hard to ignore about Balloonerism.

There’s something to say that this album wasn’t released under pressure from a record label. The family decided on the release, citing that the project had been heavily worked on and nearly completed, along with that it had been heavily circulated online in an unofficial capacity like Faces (see link). The album was created during a creative touchstone in Mac’s career. Not long after his second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, Mac showed a shift in his sound and purpose, to which he then began developing a fan favorite mixtape, Faces. Most of what is heard on Balloonerism comes from that same development time period, showcasing much of that psychedelic, jazzy sound that he would begin to be well known for.

This immersive, psychedelic sound that has been the draw to many for Mac Miller really shines through on the album. Tracks like “DJ’s Chord Organ” and “Stoned” show off Mac’s unique production style. “DJ’s Chord Organ” leans into the slow-paced vibey sound, crafting an almost abstract sound with unique instrumentation of the hereby mentioned chord organ Mac acquired from lof-fi musician Daniel Johnston (not to mention the SZA feature, which was the first collaboration between the two as she had just signed to Top Dawg). “Stoned” uses a hypnotic, reverb heavy guitar riff that successfully crafts the spacy atmosphere described in the lyrics of Mac and a girl using weed to escape the world around them. Other tracks like “5 Dollar Pony Rides” and “Funny Papers” feel like an excellent example of the conscious rap that Mac began to explore further on Divine Feminine and Swimming.

Although with the production of the album is a welcomingly familiar sound from the late artist, Balloonerism leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling. With Mac’s last release, Circles, tracks like “Good News” became emotionally devastating expressions of the thoughts and feelings that brought Mac down the path to his tragic passing in 2018. Balloonerism doesn’t shy away from these moments either with tracks like “Tomorrow Will Never Know” acting like a cautionary message from the other side, expressing the feeling of unrealized potential and rebirth. The conclusion to the album can leave you feeling conflicted and saddened by the rapper's life being cut short, giving a feeling of being a bystander to the resulting events. In that way it’s a unique feeling I don’t usually experience from a record. With Mac being an artist that was so open and vulnerable with his fans, his music has developed a very strong emotional connection with fans. With his passing, and hearing these vulnerabilities expressed in these posthumous releases, fans feel a sense of intimate understanding of the artist. In a sense this may create a parasocial dynamic with some fans, and for others, a feeling of being privy to information you shouldn’t know. In that sense, a release like this can feel cathartic, working as a part of the grieving process for fans of his music. Though I may not feel as comfortable with this recommendation as with other releases, I can say this album will definitely leave an impression.