Over the weekend, my dad and I drove across Pennsylvania to visit Pittsburgh. I had never been there and wanted to see the city, along with many locations mentioned in the music of my favorite artist, Mac Miller. You can read more about those spots, and my experience with the trip here. This piece however, has more to do with the journey than the destination.

See, you can only talk about the Eagles so much in one weekend before there is nothing more to say about them. We exhausted that topic relatively early on in the trip. However, it’s impossible to run out of music to listen to and discuss. My dad is a very big music fan, and most definitely part of the reason I am as well. We both listen to different songs from different artists, all with different styles and genres. There have been countless car rides where we’ve shared songs or albums with each other, which I always enjoy no matter how many times my dad says it’s his “old man music.”

We’ve gone through some albums from The Police and Sting, and of course all of Pink Floyd’s discography. This time however, it was my turn. Since we were riding out to Pittsburgh, it felt fitting to go through as much of Mac Miller’s discography as possible (oh right and he’s my favorite too, so that helped the decision). We started at the beginning of Mac’s career with K.I.D.S. and went right through Circles to finish it off. Unfortunately, I had to break my own heart by skipping Faces in order to fit in Swimming and Circles. After each album, I asked my dad to rate the album overall and for some of his initial thoughts and favorites. Here are the results:

K.I.D.S. (2010) = 9/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • “I liked it!”
  • Too much swearing and drugs in the lyrics
  • Good production and fun beats
  • “Poppy” made me sad
  • “I would listen to about half of the songs again on my own”

Favorite tracks:

  • Knock Knock
  • The Spins

Blue Slide Park (2011) = 7/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • There’s more fine tuned and better production
  • There’s more structure in the songs song and each flowed really well
  • The songs feel more like pop than hip-hop
  • Not as many stand out songs
  • “This one has less drug talk than K.I.D.S. which I like”

Favorite tracks:

  • Diamonds and Gold
  • Party on 5th Ave
  • Frick Park Market
  • Under the Weather

Watching Movies with the Sound Off (2013) = 5/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • “I get the theme of it, but it’s not something I would come back to”
  • Much better quality and production throughout
  • “It sounds like the world got a lot bigger for Mac”

Favorite tracks:

  • Youforia 
  • REMember

GO:OD AM (2015) = 7/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • This one has even more interesting use of sounds in the production
  • Feels the most “complete” of the projects listened to so far
  • “This is good, but I like earlier Mac better so far because it was just more fun loving”

Favorite tracks:

  • When in Rome 
  • 100 Grandkids

The Divine Feminine (2016) = 8/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • “This one is definitely more jazz/R&B heavy, but I like that shift”
  • Very well put together
  • Lots of good love songs

Favorite tracks:

  • Dang!
  • My Favorite Part

Swimming (2018) = 9/10

Dad’s thoughts:

*We had to replay “What’s the Use?” right after it ended since he liked it so much

  • “There’s really good flow on these verses, especially on ‘What’s the Use?’”
  • Really liked the use of synthesizers throughout the album
  • “This one’s very different, refined, and much more mature”
  • “It’s also much calmer”
  • “I could listen to that any time”

Favorite tracks:

  • What’s the Use? 
  • Ladders
  • So it Goes 
  • Jet Fuel 

Circles (2020) = 8/10

Dad’s thoughts:

  • Really well put together
  • “It really sounds like a different artist entirely when compared to early albums”
  • “This one’s so much more than just hip-hop, r&b, or jazz”
  • “It has a great theme and is a great listen from front to back”

Favorite tracks:

  • Circles
  • Complicated
  • Blue World
  • Good News
  • Surf

Final Thoughts 

“I was surprised by how talented Mac Miller was. Not only in his rapping, but also in the music itself, and the dimensions of his poetics and sound.”

Overall favorite song: Knock Knock or The Spins

Overall favorite album: K.I.D.S. (but very close with Swimming)

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