Faces followed Watching Movies with the Sound Off in just under a year. Considerably deeper and darker than the preceding album, it's classified as a mixtape -- originally a free download, revised and released by Warner digitally and on vinyl -- but certainly has the artistic and emotional impact of a proper LP. Within the sequence are some of Mac Miller's casually boastful and potent rhymes. More often, however, it shows the rapper examining his fragile state, reckoning with mortality, frankly despondent yet still able to construct ingenious cadences with lines like "I'm the only suicidal motherf*cker with a smile on." Miller relates his ascendancy and self-destruction in measured verging on meandering style, occasionally allowing the likes of Thundercat, ID Labs, Earl Sweatshirt, and 9th Wonder to either assist or spell him on production. The beats, energized and bleary only when Miller's self-praise and most addled moments call for it, tend to sound crafted for the sake of alleviating anxiety. ~ Andy Kellman
