Toby Brooks reviews Post Malone’s latest album
This is what music should sound like in 2019. Personally, I am not fussy when it comes to the genre of the music I listen to, which is lucky when it comes to Post Malone – a difficult artist to categorise into a genre. What I look for in music (amongst other things) is clever lyricism. I like my music like I like my poetry, deep….Posty not only has the ability to write lyrics that cut straight through a person and get at their emotions, but he also has a vulnerability in his voice that accompanies his words perfectly. In fact, everything about him suits his music very well. He is the perfect modern-day Rockstar with his facial tattoos and bud light obsession; yet, he also evokes empathy that makes him likeable to the majority of people who hear his music. His presence on stage, something I was lucky enough to experience first-hand at Leeds festival over the summer, is modest yet capturing. He lets his powerful music be taken to a whole new level through amazing light shows, where he shows off his surprisingly camp dance moves – partially masked by a cloud of artificial smoke. As I looked around to see thousands of eyes glued to a big stage, I found it surprising just how captivating one man and his music could be to a crowd.
the album will go down as
era defining – a highly accurate reflection of the times we live in
Hollywood’s Bleeding has catchy choruses, gritty vocals, and unsurprisingly insightful lyrics; its everything Posty’s fans were hoping for and so much more. The singles he released previous to the album’s release were indeed an accurate teaser of what was to come. When he released the list of features on his Instagram account, it alone was enough to get anyone excited for the album – from popular current artists such as Halsey, Travis Scott, and Future to musical legends like Ozzy Osbourne: the prince of darkness himself. From this list, it is obvious that the album would feature Posty’s trademark mixing and transcendence of genres. He is an artist that can’t be pigeon-holed into a singular genre, some may call him a rapper whilst others might define him as a hip-hop artist. Yet, his latest album is just like the two that preceded as it really shows off his musical range and varied capabilities. There are songs within the album which give off vibes ranging from bands such as My Chemical Romance (‘Allergic’), Fleetwood Mac (‘Circles’), and of course Black Sabbath (‘Take What You Want’).
Post Malone takes his trademark themes and manages to relate them to the wider goings-on of the world
My personal highlights from the album include ‘Goodbyes’ and, of course, ‘Take What You Want’. Previous to hearing the album, Ozzy Osbourne to me had been a mystical legend who I knew little of. He seemed to be a phenomenon of the past, a piece of history which I would listen to as I listen to any legend, with high expectations and respect. However, with his feature on the album, I learned how I was wrong to consign him to the past. ‘Take What You Want’ transcends time and genre and is a song, like many of Black Sabbath’s and, I hope like many of Post Malone’s, that will be remember as a classic. The song, just like the album, will go down as era-defining – a highly accurate reflection of the times we live in.
The titular album track, ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, is one of the most appropriately titled songs to reflect how the culture of the western world has evolved over the past three years or so. Post Malone takes his trademark themes of broken relationships and broken hearts and manages to relate them to the wider goings-on of the world in which he and his listeners are a part of. This is what makes the album so iconic and why, in my opinion, Hollywood’s Bleeding is the best album to be released so far this year.
