Sometimes the death of an artist can enhance our understanding of their work. Take David Bowie’s critically acclaimed “Blackstar” a harrowing journey through the mind of a man coming to the end of his life and exploring the finality of death with the poignancy and skill that only Bowie, facing terminal cancer himself, could produce. The album is beautiful, yet it becomes even more so with the news that this was Bowie’s swan song, a farewell, a parting gift to the world that gave him so much. In this way Blackstar is an example of music released close to its creator’s death done right. It is music that is finished, entirely intended by the artist, and a complete expression of their artistic spirit.
But we can contrast this to some other famous examples of posthumous (or near-posthumous) albums, perhaps the most famous of them being that of XXXTentacion’s discography. X, a talented young artist, was killed suddenly and unexpectedly in a shooting, making his death quite unlike Bowie’s battle with terminal cancer. Similarly, the way X’s music was released following his death was equally unlike Bowie. Suddenly X’s discography wasn’t full of songs he worked on and constructed but instead his new “albums” were composed of voice memos, half finished verses, sub quality recordings, and filled with so many features from other artists that these songs barely even had their supposed creator in the spotlight. It’s really hard not to see this as a disgusting cash grab to milk a young artist’s fans of their cash, releasing album after album to keep him relevant, while opening up museums for the artist and continuing to release waves upon waves of merchandise that was never approved by the artist it is representative of.
Now with the release of the new Mac Miller album “Circles” we are again faced with the questions: how should we treat an artist’s work in the wake of their death and should dead artists STAY dead?
If we look at the album in question, the likely answer would be no, but under a few specific conditions. “Circles” is a fantastic album, and arguably one of Miller’s finest works. It is a heartrending, soulful, and intimate journey through the mind of an artist arguably at his creative peak. Yet most importantly, it felt like Mac Miller’s album, not anyone else’s. McCormick (Mac Miller) was already well into recording Circles by the time of his death in September 2018, and completion of the album was no small feat. Thanks to the talents of producer Jon Brion, who meticulously poured over every detail of the album for almost a year and half, the final album was a fitting sendoff to the legacy of one of Hip Hop’s greatest contemporary voices. Instead of trying to hastily pull together odd bits and ends of an artist’s back catalogue to cash in on his untimely death, McCormick’s ending was fit for the decade defining artist we know him to be.
So it seems that sometimes artists shouldn’t stay dead, if they have something left to say. Our job as music listeners however, is to point out and criticise the posthumous music we find that doesn’t agree with the artists original vision and praise the posthumous music that does.