This week's picks of the week are a bit of a surprise for me because I had never listened to the first album until this week. I was a fan of Mac Miller, though. I have been since 2013, when Watching Movies came out. I never listened to 'K.I.D.S.' because I thought the album art was bad, which is a terrible reason to avoid listening to something.
I decided to give it a go this week because I had the song "The Spins" stuck in my head and realized I never gave it a fair shot. I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed the album and how it made me nostalgic for my summer in Pittsburgh. Mac Miller grew up in Squirrel Hill, where I spent some time. I knew some of the parks in that area and lived (for two weeks) in an adjacent neighborhood. It was really funny to hear him talk about loving the summer there because now I could picture where he and his buddies would have gotten up to some shenanigans. It made me long for the summers when I was 16-19 and up to shenanigans of my own with my buddies.
However, it also made me reflect on the short life Mac lived and his (at the time) shocking cause of death (fentanyl). He passed away in 2018, and this was a shock to me because fentanyl was just something scary in the news and had never impacted the lives of anyone I knew. Back then, it seemed like a faraway problem that would never hit Quebec (Cali is a long way away). A year and a half later, one of my best friends, Arch, went the same way. For me, it is hard to disentangle thoughts of Arch when listening to Mac, especially when listening to this album, which is largely about high school parties and goofing around.
I'm turning 25 soon, and Mac was 26 when he passed away. His posthumous album Circles was a great album, and I remember it fondly because I listened to it a lot when I mowed the lawn in the pandemic summer of 2020. I remember getting into it while I weeded my parents' back patio. Twenty-six seemed far away when I was 20, and now it feels pretty close. (How would I handle it, being as rich as Mac was at 25?)
I listen to this album and am grateful for the fun times I spent with my buddy and for the times I spent listening to Mac Miller. Mac has an enthusiasm on this album (and others) that can only come from being 18 and feeling invincible. I think most people end up realizing they are not invincible at some point, but it is a weird lesson to learn when you are 19. The hits off this album capture that feeling of being on top, having graduated high school/CEGEP (which feels cool at the time), and of having the rest of your life ahead of you (which must be a party, right?).
Listen to 'K.I.D.S.' and try to see past the hubris (and sexism). I think Mac hid a lot of insecurities on this album, but they poke through and end up being front and foremost on 'Circles'. I made them both my picks because, after I finished writing this, I couldn't separate the two.
Ev
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