Mac Miller

Swimming

If Swimming is the masterstroke of an artist who left too soon, "2009" is its crown jewel, a song it's easy to believe ten years of music was leading up to.

Miller isn’t quite in that top flight of US rappers, yet he has an unerring ability to match his confessional rhymes with the perfect beat. It’s a comeback of cathartic hip hop that feels like a leap forward.

The rapper's brutally honest fifth album is a stellar – if somewhat overlong – artistic statement.

Like an actual wave, Swimming’s moods crash and fall, then rise again, all while we frantically hold on to prevent being cast out to sea. Amid the maelstrom, Mac acts as the voice of the seas, somberly spewing line after line of pleas and resolutions to against solemn, jazzy funk.

Swimming merges enlightening, candid rhymes over funky beats, providing a transparent look at how Mac Miller hit a personal rock bottom and his vigorous climb to save himself.

His fifth official album is an ambling 13-song journey towards self-acceptance, one that does not end in triumph. Instead, it embraces the possibility that he’ll never have it all figured out.

Though the subject matter is enticing, Swimming does occasionally tread boring lulls. At its best, however, Miller’s latest project succeeds at being cathartic and is more lyrically mature than his previous work.

He’s been a fratty master of ceremonies, a depressive Serious Artist, a half-convincing loverman. Swimming features the full suite of personas coagulated into a single voice.

On his wounded fifth album, Mac Miller sings deftly about heartbreak and his mental state, capturing his resignation without turning sadness into a performative spectacle.

Swimming captures Miller at a creative apex where he's acutely aware of where he's been and where he can go.