On the fifth anniversary of the release of “Circles,” the first album released after his death, Mac Miller’s second posthumous album, “Balloonerism” hit streaming services on Jan. 17 for both old and new fans to experience. 

Announced on Nov. 16 at Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw, the long-awaited release of “Balloonerism” is something die-hard Mac Miller fans have been anticipating for years. There have been unofficial tracklists floating around for some time, but now fans can finally listen to the project in the way Miller would have intended. 

Originally an album recorded in 2014 during the same sessions as Miller’s critically acclaimed mixtape “Faces,” “Balloonerism” was a project ultimately shelved to give priority to other projects, due to its experimental nature.  

The two projects have their similarities, both sonically and thematically. In areas where “Faces” only slightly dabbled, “Balloonerism” fully commits to the slower, jazzier sound and darker thematic undertones the rapper was going for on tracks like “Colors and Shapes” or “Funeral” in 2014. 

The opening tracks “Tambourine Dream” and “DJ’s Chord Organ” immediately set the tone for the artistic direction the album is headed. Miller’s voice takes a backseat on the intro, letting a combination of a 10-year-old SZA verse, Thundercat vocals and a soothing organ set the stage for what is the artist’s most experimental project. 

“Balloonerism” deals with common themes that are seen in previous projects, but zones in on darker subjects such as death, drug use, feeling unfulfilled from fame and the difficulty of growing up. This combined with the slower and jazzier sound of the project makes up the foundation of this album. These topics were always talked about by Miller but are no longer hidden through upbeat production and raps. Instead, he is vulnerable and creatively experimental. 

While he leans more into the singer/songwriter route that he tapped into later in his career on this album, Miller still delivers quality rap verses throughout the project that are on par with the other music he was making at the time. On tracks such as “Do You Have A Destination?” he delivers bars that sound like a verse off of “Faces” but deal with darker, introspective themes that feel like “Balloonerism.”

Miller deals with death throughout the whole album, but particularly on tracks like “Rick’s Piano” as he repeats the question “What does death feel like?” Or on “Funny Papers,” when lyrics like “Didn’t think anybody died on a Friday” have deeper meaning after knowing that Mac himself died on Sept. 7, 2018, which was a Friday. 

Songs like “Excelsior” deal with the struggles of growing up and the world taking away a sense of childhood and creativity. “Before the world tear apart imagination / Before there were rules, before there were limits / Your only enemies were Brussels sprouts and spinach.”

Listening through this album feels like opening a time capsule, one that is both comforting and eerie to experience. In that time capsule, the sounds are both familiar and new, with themes that echo louder in the context of his death.