Austin Richard Post has had a run of a few successful few years. All 18 songs from his second album ‘Beerbongs and Bentleys’ charted in the US. He’s smashed streaming records. And he’s been nominated for a Grammy. Now the American rapper has dropped a brand new album hoping it will follow the same path, called ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’. One of the main reasons Post was such a phenomenon last year was his ability to stay outside the box and not confine himself to a genre. With his third album studio album he’s done the same thing, much to his fans delight. On ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, Post Malone once again combines country, rock, hip-hop and modern soft soul into one masterpiece of a record.
In line with the darker tones of his recent supernaturally-charged music videos, Malone aims for more of a cohesive sound than his past works, settling into a groove of spaced-out, melancholy and reverberating trap-pop. His lyrics continue to be as poetic as ever, Malone worries at length about the motives of the people surrounding him. He criticizes women who “never took the time to get to know me,” as he puts it in the opening title track just after he imagines his funeral.
This new record leans more towards a pop vibe but you wouldn’t think that with the guest line up for it, Meek Mill, Swae Lee, Young Thug, Halsey, Future, Ozzy Osbourne and more all feature. Last year around the Christmas period Post Malone caught our attention with the first single “Wow”, and since then he’s continued to impress.
For all it does to solidify Malone’s reputation as the sad king of streaming, what’s interesting about “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is that it actually moves beyond the bleary, decentered sound he perfected on his first two albums, both of which remain in the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 even as this one enters the world. Unlike “Stoney” and “Beerbongs & Bentleys,” this album feels more stylistic, and focused more on his stories of life and love.
Where ‘Beerbongs & Bentleys’ was criticised for a lack of ideas, here is a record that darts off in many different directions. Sometimes it feels as though he’s still trying to figure this out as he goes, but it’s when he keeps things simple and goes beyond the clichés that he feels most like himself.
Rating: ★★★★☆
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