Macklemore has all the time been form of so much. The histrionic hooks, middlebrow exegeses about white privilege, the double- and triple-time bars, even the rattling haircut: He’s the one widespread rapper with the panting, sweaty air of a Broadway showman, nearly pathologically desperate to please. Historical past will always remember him because the man who received a Grammy after which apologized to the man who ought to’ve received that Grammy, after which posted that apology on Instagram. Given how over-the-top the final Macklemore expertise has been, the notion that the rapper’s new comeback LP, Ben, is a front-to-back idea album about his personal dying would possibly strike the Macklemore-averse as manner, manner an excessive amount of Macklemore.
Surprisingly, it finds him mellowed out, centered, with a newfound curiosity in subtlety and even subtext. Following the deceptively IMAX-scale “Chant,” which sounds extra of a bit along with his bombastic work with the producer Ryan Lewis, the report settles right into a stretch of spunky pop rock, together with a shimmering, M83-esque little bit of rap-free synth-pop on “1984.” You possibly can nearly odor the ocean breeze, even because the syncopated refrain forces him to croon, Santa-like, “Hearth burning in my so-ho-hole/I don’t need to be alo-ho-home.” Nonetheless, there’s a low-stakes sense of enjoyment to this stretch that recurs on the throwback boom-bap of tracks like “Heroes” and “Grime,” which, equally, discover the rapper seeking to the music of his youth with a wholesome mix of nostalgia, reverence, and newfound perspective.
That perspective, in fact, comes at a value. It’s been a half-decade since Macklemore’s final LP, and he has spoken in regards to the influence of the pandemic on that tenure, each when it comes to delaying his need to roll the album out and the best way the amorphous timelessness of 2020 challenged his sobriety. And so creeping via these effervescent pop songs is a touch of mortality that comes into full bloom on the treacly “Day You Die,” and finally dominates the again half of the LP. “I’m wondering what celebrities will tweet RIP,” he raps on the suite-like “Solar Comes Up, “when it’s introduced that I’m useless on TMZ.” Macklemore is a rapper whose readability of thought is matched solely by these ideas’ corniness, however this high quality is healthier suited to explicating the character of his personal existence than the broader social issues that dominated his earlier LPs.
These information might have primed listeners for some throat-shredding climax right here, by which our hero vaingloriously Chooses Life, however even in its ultimate act the album incorporates some surprises. The drumless “I Know” recollects early-Drake’s style for atmosphere, and “Tail Lights” concludes the album on the quiet picture of a automotive discovering its manner via the darkish. To make sure, Ben options loads of catharsis and oversharing, nevertheless it additionally has no grand solutions or conclusions, simply apologies, acceptance, and ambiguity. A few of Ben’s success have to be attributed to the producer Budo, a longtime collaborator, right here offering skillful texture to the album’s broader arc, however the fact is that Macklemore, who on his final album rhymed “porno” with “DiGiorno,” has matured. Ben is handily his finest album. It’s a midcareer downshift from an artist who desperately wanted it.
