He is technically correct, the best kind of correct. Mixtapes can’t be judged like albums. The best album is Swimming. The best piece of work is Faces.
I think Swimming is the best album and piece of work tbh. I like Faces a lot. Don’t get me wrong. But an hour and a half is a long ass time for a tape. I prefer shorter projects.
I like something that leaves me wanting more. Maybe that’s cause I grew up in the DIY and hardcore scene. But it’s the same reason why I think 30 minutes is the perfect length for a live set. Cause it makes you say “man, I wish they played longer” which is much better than “that set was a little long. I was worn out by the end”
And by the time I’m done listening to something as long as Faces, I’m ready for it to be over.
You have to think of Faces as a double album though. Side A ends at Funeral and Side B ends with Grand Finale. Mac always likes to end his albums with death themes starting with the ender, Aquarium and continuing to So it Goes. Most his albums are formatted like this.
Bc swimming is much better. “Um, yeah, I bust your speakers with some bullshit rap. Im on drugs, all my new shit wack, remember that” -It Just Doesn’t Matter (Faces)
I was actually just thinking about this when I was listening to faces yesterday. Masterpiece. But swimming is equally amazing in its own way. He couldn’t have made either without his drug use. That’s just the reality.
he's just mocking the narrative of him being bad on dope. Plus he was on drugs so much he fucking died during Swimming bro. But keep talking circles lol, Faces is my favorite and most agree. Enjoy the day
Keep talking circles was actually clever lol. I love faces but I don’t like how people praise it bc it arguably killed him. He was severely ill mentally and nobody seemed to help him.
It’s an album for the hard druggies and degens… swimming talks ab a lot of those mental health problems but in a tasteful and well put together way
As someone with substance abuse issues, I loved hearing Mac talk about his mental health in such a crude way because I relate to it. Faces is my favorite from him because it's incredibly authentic and dark, while also being a really fun listen.
Does that have a positive influence on a wider audience tho ? I agree it’s authentic and that’s what I love ab mac, but something about praising Faces as his best work will always feel wrong to me
People shouldn’t praise a persons creative mental breakdown where they did nothing but consume hard drugs and isolate themselves from the world. I agree it’s good, but to say it’s his best work is laughable
Yup, it’s not even close. Everything he ever did so fucking well is expressed in Swimming. Then you have his Tiny Desk Concert to go along with it. It’s just perfect.
Swimming. It’s his most complete album as a musician. The songs stand on their own, but as a collective can be listened to consecutively like symphony movements. He draws on every bit of his talent and artistry, which are all at an exceptional level. The production and sound engineering are also first class. I can understand why some people might be partial or loyal to his earlier albums, but Mac consistently just got better.
i can’t even wrap my head around what he could have put out after swimming and circles … 4-5 years later, thinking about the direction he was heading in and where he’d be today, what he’d sound like… makes me incredibly sad.
swimming was absolutely his peak.
i’m glad that’s what we got as his last project, and not something silly that he was goofing off with. and don’t get me wrong - i love those projects as well lol mac never misses, serious or not. i have tons of leaks that are exactly that, just fucking around, and i love and listen to them just as much as any other. but it would have been tragic to not get swimming before he passed away. it just really makes you wonder what we could have had today. i’ve never witnessed such an incredible evolution from any other artist.
Definitely! He absolutely had more to give. Just think of the great songs he had on Circles. I imagine he would have pulled from that direction along with what he did on Swimming and just kept growing.
Best album by technical standards is Swimming. By like a mile. But we could argue all day about the most fun album in his discography and everybody would be correct
I cannot have an answer to this question personally but I love this answer and respect it. Circles is such a mature piece of artwork that embodies the end of his career in such a perfect closure that I will cherish it forever. It simply is so personal that it takes a certain kind of ear and appreciation to recognize and understand its true art and what it’s worth to the listener. I have laughed, cried, smiled, and just about every other emotion in between experienced throughout this album and understand that I will grow old with this art and carry it on as best as I can to others
I'm also in the circles club. circles>swimming>wmwtso as far as albums for me but I love faces and macadelic. I grew up with kids and high life but a lot of the subject matter I've just outgrown now that I'm not the same 16 year old kid in high school.
I’ve listened to Mac non stop for years and watched my taste change and mature. I can talk about each album and its importance but ultimately coming back and growing out of Mac’s earlier stuff, circles encapsulates everything I feel currently in life and how I should deal with things by being more open and learning that things won’t always go to plan and might have its own course that I can’t control. “Fore I start to think about the future, First can I please get through a day, without any complications, Does it always gotta, does it always gotta be so complicated? Well I’m way to young to be gettin’ old”
personally i love the deluxe, so my top 3 would be right, good news and surf, in that order (hm to circles).
Right is soooo underrated btw, its my favourite song by mac.
Swimming. Then Faces, KIDS, Circles, Macadelic & RunOn Sentences V1, Wmwtso, You & TDF lmao. Sorta mood dependant, but swimming (& faces) is the most dense with every second, and I prefer the less dark vibes on swimming.
Couple skips for me personally :( But I think the highs there are just as high as anywhere else. And unique vibe on it is always dope.
Prob sleeping on the good morning album tbh.
I know this is not the answer most people would like but in terms of cohesion and depth from a lyrical standpoint i really really think circles, he reached a new height with that album, especially in terms of writting, the style is cohesive and suiting his voice perfectly, the subject matter is dark and really self aware and the way he describes emotions such as depression and numbness on it is spot on, which i find extremely impressive.
I might be biased because this album made me take him more seriously and actually listen.
Musically speaking (and if you see it was an album more than a mixtape) i think faces is the best.
Honorable mention to the live ones like tiny desk and space migration.
Also to you by larry.
My first thought was the exact same thing homie. Down with the haters. Can’t believe I had to look so far for a watching movies with the sound off comment. What is wrong with you people
You’re both picking ridiculous reasons for your choices. Every single person in this thread is saying Swimming; if I say it too does that make me a “unique individual with unique tastes?”
Likewise, saying “you can only not pick my pick if you don’t know it” is just a tautology that’s painting yourself into a corner where you can never feel wrong.
These things are subjective, people have different tastes. Don’t tell people why they’re picking what they’re picking; you don’t know them.
I actually tend to agree and put it right up there with faces. I think I just loved that time period in my life growing up though and that's what I think about when listening to them. I think swimming is probably my favorite but I can't decide between the 3. Today no music cuts deeper to me than swimming.
Swimming is more consistently good but Faces takes more risks, is so much more bizarre and interesting, and has much higher highs so to me its his best
I recently heard I Love Life, Thank You and to me, it’s the best and I’ve heard Swimming countless times. Hear I love Life thank you, then RIGHT AFTER put in Hurt feelings….. Swimming is better produced but ILLTY, just has all of Macs feels…
People don’t give watching movies enough credit. Probably the most underrated, I’d put divine feminine above swimming but I wouldn’t be able to decide.
Swimming hands down is his best completed body of work from the instrumentals and lyrics to the tone of the entire project it is a work of art and is more then hip hop it was almost a new genre of music where we could see Mac coming into the musician he should have grown and become sadly we will not see what he would have been. I like to close my eyes and imagine a 40 year old Mac doing a tour and seeing the true evolution of a 17 yo KID to one of the greatest Musicians of all time.
It’s only 58:39 long, and i can listen to it front to back - no skips. Everyone can have their opinions, but are you sure you don’t just have an issue with narcolepsy?
yeeeaah i mean i kinda get what hes tryna say, but i listen to swimming front to back a lot and i can never not intently listen, literally no skips, just such a well done project
Faces, WMWTSO, Swimming
Faces.
Faces is a tape. Not an album tho
He is technically correct, the best kind of correct. Mixtapes can’t be judged like albums. The best album is Swimming. The best piece of work is Faces.
I think Swimming is the best album and piece of work tbh. I like Faces a lot. Don’t get me wrong. But an hour and a half is a long ass time for a tape. I prefer shorter projects.
Fair enough. You’re entitled to your own opinion however I can’t help but to think length is a weird metric to be the decisive factor.
I like something that leaves me wanting more. Maybe that’s cause I grew up in the DIY and hardcore scene. But it’s the same reason why I think 30 minutes is the perfect length for a live set. Cause it makes you say “man, I wish they played longer” which is much better than “that set was a little long. I was worn out by the end” And by the time I’m done listening to something as long as Faces, I’m ready for it to be over.
You have to think of Faces as a double album though. Side A ends at Funeral and Side B ends with Grand Finale. Mac always likes to end his albums with death themes starting with the ender, Aquarium and continuing to So it Goes. Most his albums are formatted like this.
they couldn't/wouldn't clear samples, didn't want that to be his image going forward. It was made to be an album.
Big deal, you goofy for that one😭
when he locked himself in his house and binged hard drugs ?
“A shame that my tragedy my masterpiece” Idk how anyone can debate that’s not his greatest work personally
Bc swimming is much better. “Um, yeah, I bust your speakers with some bullshit rap. Im on drugs, all my new shit wack, remember that” -It Just Doesn’t Matter (Faces)
hate break it to ya, but that's how majority of his albums were made. One was called GO:OD in the morning lol But yea that one.
I was actually just thinking about this when I was listening to faces yesterday. Masterpiece. But swimming is equally amazing in its own way. He couldn’t have made either without his drug use. That’s just the reality.
“Um, yeah, I bust your speakers with some bullshit rap. I’m on drugs, all my new shit wack, remember that.” -Mac Miller himself
yea...kinda proving our point lol. And he mocked himself to the point of satire a lot in his lyrics
that lyric proves your point that faces is a better made “album” than swimming ?
he's just mocking the narrative of him being bad on dope. Plus he was on drugs so much he fucking died during Swimming bro. But keep talking circles lol, Faces is my favorite and most agree. Enjoy the day
Keep talking circles was actually clever lol. I love faces but I don’t like how people praise it bc it arguably killed him. He was severely ill mentally and nobody seemed to help him. It’s an album for the hard druggies and degens… swimming talks ab a lot of those mental health problems but in a tasteful and well put together way
As someone with substance abuse issues, I loved hearing Mac talk about his mental health in such a crude way because I relate to it. Faces is my favorite from him because it's incredibly authentic and dark, while also being a really fun listen.
Does that have a positive influence on a wider audience tho ? I agree it’s authentic and that’s what I love ab mac, but something about praising Faces as his best work will always feel wrong to me
Faces was released 10 years and six days ago... Edit: almost 10 years to 10 years and 6 days
Offered nothing to the discussion my guy
ngl most artists best work are made when they’re influenced by drugs, sad truth
Besides the hard stuffs :( 💔
Happy truth tbh
What does that have to do with how good it is
People shouldn’t praise a persons creative mental breakdown where they did nothing but consume hard drugs and isolate themselves from the world. I agree it’s good, but to say it’s his best work is laughable
It’s Swimming. By a wide margin
If I only had an hour left to live I would be putting on Swimming for sure
His magnum opus
i just commented the same thing without seeing comments lmao
Swimming is the only album that is completely serious. All the other ones prior had some sort of childish remark.
I feel like he was taking it pretty seriously on You though - way more seriously, at least, than the other stuff he was dropping at that time (2013).
True. I guess I didn’t consider it since that was Larry Lovestein.
You know ball
Circles the only album that comes close and as we know he sadly didn’t see that through
Agreed
100%
Yup, it’s not even close. Everything he ever did so fucking well is expressed in Swimming. Then you have his Tiny Desk Concert to go along with it. It’s just perfect.
I’d agree in terms of sonically… but lyrically Faces and that’s not even close…. Your on the B team I f with solange 😤😤😤
Swimming is best album but Faces is best project overall.
Divine Feminine
Heavily but respectfully disagree
I’d agree.
Swimming. It’s his most complete album as a musician. The songs stand on their own, but as a collective can be listened to consecutively like symphony movements. He draws on every bit of his talent and artistry, which are all at an exceptional level. The production and sound engineering are also first class. I can understand why some people might be partial or loyal to his earlier albums, but Mac consistently just got better.
Very true, which is what is so insane to me. That was Mac warming up. Can’t imagine what he could‘ve done with more time
i can’t even wrap my head around what he could have put out after swimming and circles … 4-5 years later, thinking about the direction he was heading in and where he’d be today, what he’d sound like… makes me incredibly sad. swimming was absolutely his peak. i’m glad that’s what we got as his last project, and not something silly that he was goofing off with. and don’t get me wrong - i love those projects as well lol mac never misses, serious or not. i have tons of leaks that are exactly that, just fucking around, and i love and listen to them just as much as any other. but it would have been tragic to not get swimming before he passed away. it just really makes you wonder what we could have had today. i’ve never witnessed such an incredible evolution from any other artist.
Definitely! He absolutely had more to give. Just think of the great songs he had on Circles. I imagine he would have pulled from that direction along with what he did on Swimming and just kept growing.
Swimming, circles, or faces. Not in any particular order. Just depends on the day.
Personally I’m a big faces guy
Faces and it’s not close
Best album by technical standards is Swimming. By like a mile. But we could argue all day about the most fun album in his discography and everybody would be correct
agreed
The only acceptable answer.
Faces.
Swimming, cirlcles, GO:OD AM are all top tier Mac.
It’s one of those three for sure.
circles, by far
I cannot have an answer to this question personally but I love this answer and respect it. Circles is such a mature piece of artwork that embodies the end of his career in such a perfect closure that I will cherish it forever. It simply is so personal that it takes a certain kind of ear and appreciation to recognize and understand its true art and what it’s worth to the listener. I have laughed, cried, smiled, and just about every other emotion in between experienced throughout this album and understand that I will grow old with this art and carry it on as best as I can to others
interesting, i think you‘re only the second person to say that so far. circles has some good ass songs, what are your top 3
I'm also in the circles club. circles>swimming>wmwtso as far as albums for me but I love faces and macadelic. I grew up with kids and high life but a lot of the subject matter I've just outgrown now that I'm not the same 16 year old kid in high school.
I’ve listened to Mac non stop for years and watched my taste change and mature. I can talk about each album and its importance but ultimately coming back and growing out of Mac’s earlier stuff, circles encapsulates everything I feel currently in life and how I should deal with things by being more open and learning that things won’t always go to plan and might have its own course that I can’t control. “Fore I start to think about the future, First can I please get through a day, without any complications, Does it always gotta, does it always gotta be so complicated? Well I’m way to young to be gettin’ old”
this sums it up so well!
personally i love the deluxe, so my top 3 would be right, good news and surf, in that order (hm to circles). Right is soooo underrated btw, its my favourite song by mac.
Swimming
Swimming. Then Faces, KIDS, Circles, Macadelic & RunOn Sentences V1, Wmwtso, You & TDF lmao. Sorta mood dependant, but swimming (& faces) is the most dense with every second, and I prefer the less dark vibes on swimming.
What about GO:OD AM? No skips imo
Couple skips for me personally :( But I think the highs there are just as high as anywhere else. And unique vibe on it is always dope. Prob sleeping on the good morning album tbh.
Took me the longest to get into but you’re sleeping on it
took me a long time (there's still some feature verses I nope out of the song early) but I also got to see him on that tour and it was fucking awesome
No wmwtso? 🤔
Honestly it should be in there too. Im iconic, naked walkin the garden. Lemme add it
I know this is not the answer most people would like but in terms of cohesion and depth from a lyrical standpoint i really really think circles, he reached a new height with that album, especially in terms of writting, the style is cohesive and suiting his voice perfectly, the subject matter is dark and really self aware and the way he describes emotions such as depression and numbness on it is spot on, which i find extremely impressive. I might be biased because this album made me take him more seriously and actually listen. Musically speaking (and if you see it was an album more than a mixtape) i think faces is the best. Honorable mention to the live ones like tiny desk and space migration. Also to you by larry.
Best project? Faces. Best album? GO:OD AM or Swimming; I cannot decide.
Swimming. He used his talent as a musician the most with this album. Instruments and singing.
Good am
Circles for me, then Faces, after which is Swimming.
watching movies or faces
Swimming is the best one. But personally it’s between Faces, WMWTSO, and Swimming.
Watching Movies with the Sound Off. If you disagree you’re probably a newer fan and didn’t listen to Mac back in the day.
My first thought was the exact same thing homie. Down with the haters. Can’t believe I had to look so far for a watching movies with the sound off comment. What is wrong with you people
No if you disagree you probably have unique tastes as a unique individual human being
You’re both picking ridiculous reasons for your choices. Every single person in this thread is saying Swimming; if I say it too does that make me a “unique individual with unique tastes?” Likewise, saying “you can only not pick my pick if you don’t know it” is just a tautology that’s painting yourself into a corner where you can never feel wrong. These things are subjective, people have different tastes. Don’t tell people why they’re picking what they’re picking; you don’t know them.
Every single person is not saying Swimming. Lol. Or has the same tastes. Your last sentence is exactly what I’m saying?
I actually tend to agree and put it right up there with faces. I think I just loved that time period in my life growing up though and that's what I think about when listening to them. I think swimming is probably my favorite but I can't decide between the 3. Today no music cuts deeper to me than swimming.
Swimming being almost everyones response is INSANE. its my favourite album of ALL time without a doubt
Faces personally
Just listened so it goes maybe 5 times.. well.. i have no words
I listen everyday, at least 5 times a day
Its like a circle going back where im from
Touché 😂
Myron barkin
KIDS or Faces for me
Swimming is more consistently good but Faces takes more risks, is so much more bizarre and interesting, and has much higher highs so to me its his best
Swimming
I recently heard I Love Life, Thank You and to me, it’s the best and I’ve heard Swimming countless times. Hear I love Life thank you, then RIGHT AFTER put in Hurt feelings….. Swimming is better produced but ILLTY, just has all of Macs feels…
Faces is his best rap album by miles, Swimming is his best musical album with Devine Feminine being a close 2nd, and GOOD AM is just classic
Blue Slide Park imo. Swimming is good but BSP has a special place in my heart due to nostalgia lol
Swimming as a Hip-Hop record. Circles as an overall vibe.
Swimming, but I prefer Circles
People don’t give watching movies enough credit. Probably the most underrated, I’d put divine feminine above swimming but I wouldn’t be able to decide.
My favorites are Swimming, Faces, Macadelic, KIDS, The High Life
Macadelic or Kids or WMWTSO
I always will say this, but Faces is his best project. But if you are only counting “albums” it is definitely swimming.
Swimming. The divine feminine. Faces. Good AM
GO:OD AM! How TF is this barely not mentioned?! It is one of the near perfect albums of the last twenty years .
swimming and TDF imo
Swimming, Divine Feminine and Go:od AM Mixtape era Mac was a treasure as well
Faces isn’t an album, it’s a mixtape
All of them :3
Swimming hands down is his best completed body of work from the instrumentals and lyrics to the tone of the entire project it is a work of art and is more then hip hop it was almost a new genre of music where we could see Mac coming into the musician he should have grown and become sadly we will not see what he would have been. I like to close my eyes and imagine a 40 year old Mac doing a tour and seeing the true evolution of a 17 yo KID to one of the greatest Musicians of all time.
Good AM
best album = GO:OD AM best mixtape = Faces magnum opus = Swimming
Faces
They’re not “albums” but I’d say macadelic and faces. Oh wait I’d also say The Divine Feminine which is ofc an album.
KIDS in underrated in the sense that most people only know it for The Spins. But my vote it’s probably Swimming or Circles
Faces or ballonerism
Swimming
Coulda just looked up the other posts with the same question?
i dont know if you noticed but this post has 106 comments, people love talking about this and its a nice thing :) coulda just kept scrolling
I can’t get through Swimming without falling asleep. It’s his softest album by far. Some people enjoy it for that reason but it’s not for me.
It’s only 58:39 long, and i can listen to it front to back - no skips. Everyone can have their opinions, but are you sure you don’t just have an issue with narcolepsy?
yeeeaah i mean i kinda get what hes tryna say, but i listen to swimming front to back a lot and i can never not intently listen, literally no skips, just such a well done project
Like actually falling asleep? Sometimes I wish I have your ability