Following his untimely death in 2018, Mac Miller's posthumous album, Circles, dropped today, courtesy of his family. Mac was working on the project, which acts as a companion to his last album, Swimming, extensively before his tragic passing almost a year-and-a-half ago. His family announced last week that Jon Brion, who had been working with Mac on the album prior to his death, had completed Circles "based on his time and conversations with Malcolm." After releasing the first single, "Good News," last Thursday, Circles has arrived today, taking fans and admirers of Mac even deeper into his conflicted spirit. The final product is a devastating and all-too-real portrait of a man lost in contemplation, trying to make sense of himself and the world around him. While it's hard to pick just one song that exemplifies this, "Everybody" demonstrates Mac's ability to articulate how complicated life is as a whole in such a simple, poignant way, both lyrically and musically.
Like many of the 12 tracks on Circles, Mac approaches the heavy topic of death, singing matter-of-factly on "Everybody" that "Everybody's gotta live/And everybody's gonna die." His painfully soulful voice makes this song and the album as a whole difficult to stomach, as it serves more than anything as a reminder of a young talent gone too soon.
Quotable Lyrics
Feel like I've seen a million sunsets, yeah
If you're with me I'll never go away
That's when I stopped and I took a look at my baby
She said, "If you're with me, I won't go away"