Post Malone has had an unconventional rise to fame to say the least. After becoming a viral sensation in 2016 following the release of ‘White Iverson’ the corn rowed rapper seemed to be on the path of a one hit wonder. One hit turned to two, two to three, and now Austin Post is one of the biggest acts in the world. His career path has been fast and steep, with three #1 singles in the past two years, a number one album (that’s now x3 platinum), and a collection of face tattoo’s, what’s left to do? On his new album Hollywood’s Bleeding, it seems he’s still trying to figure it out too.
The new album clocks in at 17 songs and 50 minutes. Boasting an impressive collection of features from DaBaby to Halsey, and most of the production coming from familiar faces. All of this should translate to success, but it ends up coming off stale at points. ‘Internet’ has to be one of the worst of the bunch, a 2 minute song about not being on the Internet anymore but the entire first verse is about models on Instagram. ‘Allergic’ sounds like a demo for pop goes punk and not in a good way, another song clocking barely over 2 minutes with the writing on this one is some of the weakest on the album.
At the album’s low points its boring and formulaic, but at it’s high points it’s some of the best music Post has made in his career. ‘Circles’ shows his softer side with a mellow guitar played my Austin himself, this feels like the kind of music he should be making. I wish he would give us a full album like this. Songs like ‘Die for Me’ and ‘A Thousand Bad Times’ both have big hit potential, especially the former, Future comes in with a great feature breaking out his high-pitched voice and Halsey come in to close it out. I’d bet this is in the top ten by the end of next week.
The best run on this album comes early ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, ‘Saint-Tropez’, and ‘Enemies’ giving the album a great start. All are strong efforts, the title track being my favorite. The standout moment has to be the Ozzy (yes… Ozzy Osbourne) and Travis Scott on ‘Take What You Want’ man oh man, I never thought I needed to hear Ozzy over autotune but it is glorious.
Overall Post Malone hits some high notes on this album but a lot of it comes off as repetitive and formulated. The more genuine songs naturally come off better- and if we cut out some of the fat with unneeded songs he could really make a stellar album. But for now we’ll just have to wait and see what he does next.
Favorite Tracks: Circles, Take What You Want, Sunflower
