IN May, Kendrick Lamar dropped Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, an album that – in short – revealed everything he had been facing throughout his life.
On June 3, Post Malone’s did the same with his fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache, plunging listeners into his own struggles and state of mind since at least 2020. That said, the difference in output quality between both is staggering.
After Malone’s second – and arguably, controversially best – album, Beerbongs & Bentleys in 2018, it was obvious the rapper was ready to experiment with his music, but then Hollywood’s Bleeding was released in just a year later, and it floundered like a fish out of water.
It became obvious that Malone was creating music largely with radio airplay and “this has to work as a single” in mind. The trend continues and worsens with Toothache.
Lack of cohesion
Hollywood crawled so that Toothache could regress into a wheelchair, as the album sees Malone at his most expressive and open lyrically, but stunted musically, particularly the production.
The iconic reverb that is present in Malone’s releases continue to be present in Toothache, yet for some reason, sound washed out and extra “reverb-y”, while the intrumentals, particularly the drums, sound overproduced and more washed out than the reverb.
Close your eyes, and the tracks on Toothache will sound like Malone is singing inside a wet, underwater cavern.
For what it’s worth, Malone’s lyricism and ability to create hooks remain on-point, such as the end of “Waste Angels”, when The Kid LAROI and a choir brings the track to its finality.
On the lyrical side, the rapper shines the best, even if a lot of the subject matter is depressing to listen to, such as his alcoholism, which made news in early 2020 pre-pandemic due to his behaviour on stage during performances and overall “look”.
Post’s prose
In Toothache, Malone hangs his dirty laundry out to dry, repeating on several tracks his admittance to alcohol abuse, and one altercation that presumably led to him losing several of his teeth.
“You’re the reason why I got my ass kicked, but you’re the only way to drown my sadness, this is my love/hate letter out to alcohol,” Malone sings on the chorus of (obviously) “Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol”, and opening the second verse with the aftermath of how he was “laid out flat like a centerfold”.
No one went into the album wanting to hear Malone getting knocked out, but he puts it out there, with no shame, but regret.
On the sonically rich – and probably most interesting – track “Euthanasia”, Malone sings about or rather romanticises getting euthanasia when he “goes out”.
None of the songs on Toothache sound particularly “happy”, even if they are accompanied by melodies that are signature of Malone’s music, and one wonders if this album and the one before it, sound the way they do because of his music label.
At the rate he is going after Hollywood’s Bleeding and now this, Malone might be better off working on and unleashing his shackled acoustic creativity on the country album that he has always wanted to do.
