By: Big Flowers
In a time that exploits one celebrity death after another with posthumous releases that don’t embody the energy captured by the artist when they were still alive, Good News feels electric with the energy of Mac. This is a song the late, but much too early, Mac Miller would be okay with being released, if I have the jurisdiction to hold that opinion. The beat, while playful and poppy, remains within the boundaries of refined, omni-inspired sonic creativity that Mac had manifested with his final album, Swimming. Nowhere in the nearly 6 minutes of runtime does the song become stale, which I find to be a rarity in today’s musical landscape. The continually plucked rhythmic percussive harmonies that thread this piece together serve as a lush garden for the bass and leads to rest their mourning upon. The vocals, though I’m not certain of the timeframe in which they were recorded, are remarkably sentimental in light of Mac’s passing, with lines like, “do a little spring cleaning, I’m always too busy dreaming, well maybe I should wake up instead,” jerking at the ghost of his presence. There is so much sorrow wrapped into this song, yet it doesn’t feel intended, more-so ironic, because he wasn’t here to release it. This doesn’t change the fact that it is alive with Mac’s meta, not some holographic representation stitched together for figure The natural reception of this song, organic to Mac’s craft, spotlights his family and estate, who have been sympathetically, respectfully and passionately blunt with their preservation of his essence, making sure that what he left unreleased is not deflowered by a rushed, superficial, post-mortem exposure. There is pop in Good News, there is groove in Good News, there is love in Good News, but most importantly, there is Mac in Good News.
5.7/6