Post Malone Austin review

Austin review | Guitar-wielding, grown-up reflections from Post Malone

★★★★☆
Post Malone delivers his most guitar-oriented album to-date with Austin – a record that sees him toy between his previous hedonistic ways and maturity.

by Teddy Coward |

★★★★☆

Post Malone delivers his most guitar-oriented album to-date with Austin – a record that sees him toy between his previous hedonistic ways and maturity.
For an album with a title that drops the veneer of an artistic moniker, Austin lives up to what you might assume. It sees Austin Post, aka Post Malone, drop the heady highs of clout-chasing and the rockstar life he’d previously assumed, for a pared-back, more serene approach. Just as you see him lounging poolside on the album’s cover, he comes across relaxed, assured. This isn’t the left-field album of his that some had predicted (a country album was even being whispered by some), but he does offer some deviation, whilst basking in the confidence accrued from his four prior LPs. Opener ‘Don’t Understand’, for instance, is about as bare as we’ve ever heard Postie: just him and his trusty ol’ guitar, opening with his claim to being “a rolling stone” – a phrase that bears huge significance to the singer-songwriter canon, harking back to Bob Dylan. Post Malone Austin Post Malone ultras might glean something of a full-circle moment here, with this opening confession reflecting the similar sentiment of his debut August 26th mixtape opener, ‘Never Understand’; only here, Postie’s all grown-up, and rather than the inebriated thrills of being young (“We got molly and we got Xans / And we got drank and we got plants,” he boasted in 2016), his fears are that of someone wrangling with self-doubt in a serious relationship (“I don’t understand why you like me so much / ‘Cause I don’t like myself”). Part of the sense of maturity and reflection on this record stems from the fact this is the first Post Malone album since the 28-year-old became a father. In an interview with Zane Lowe, the artist opened-up about the common effect of having a kid and slowing down – something that would be more dramatic for someone with the party boy reputation of Postie. Second track ‘Something Real’ feels like it delves into this most, as he offloads – in a voice that sounds like a pained The Weeknd – about the search for genuine fulfilment after hedonism, when “the gear’s too high, this is overload / And no matter what car is sittin’ outside, it’s a lonely road.” A similar sense of grandiose contemplation figures on ‘Landmine’, a track uplifted by a full choir backing that Post Malone has previously explained was inspired by Gorillaz. Here, too, Post seems to be toying between his old ways and maturity (“all my friends / Invite ‘em in / Light my cigarette / And hope someone’s watchin’”) and this relation between adulthood and indulgence through the prism of addiction versus self-restraint is a key theme of the album.
Post Malone

Photo: Alfred Marroquin

‘Socialite’ and ‘Texas Tea’ fall mostly into the category of Postie falling into old habits, professing to being “always a drink away from a good day” and having had “pop a couple mushies, and I let that shit soak in,” respectively. But let’s not be killjoys; both tracks give us a lot of what we’ve loved previously about the artist – and even new fathers should enjoy a degree of letting loose. Other parts of the album, however, find a way for Post Malone to experience life’s joys away from intoxicants. Lead single ‘Chemical’, with the warbling timbre of Posty’s vocals, sees love as the headiest high of all; ‘Speedometer’ has a lo-fi, Unknown Mortal Orchestra-like shimmering groove; ‘Buyer Beware’, though grappling with self-awareness and other people’s intentions, still has a sunny, synth-filled disposition, packaged neatly together by the album’s producers Andrew Watt and Louis Bell. Not everything makes a memorable impact on the listener, mind – the product of a record that’s 17 tracks long. Clocking-in at nearly 52 minutes, arguably a trimmer, less-is-more approach would have been the better option for an album that seeks to be a more cultivated confessional among Post Malone’s catalogue. As such, tracks like the formulaic ‘Sign Me Up’ doesn’t induce the same enthusiasm as its title, whilst arena-built pop number ‘Enough Is Enough’ feels a little over-done and anodyne. Still, there’s plenty to admire about Austin amid this density. Upon announcing the album back in May, Postie rightfully played up the fact he’d played guitar on every track. As if to leave us firmly with this knowledge, the album concludes with ‘Green Thumb’ – a tune that nearly bookends the record with ‘Don’t Understand’ with its pure acoustics, and where Postie’s voice borders yodelling – and ‘Laugh It Off’. This closer in many ways epitomises the album as a whole, seeing Post Malone – now a little older, a little wiser – trying to find a mature way to live day-to-day, whilst having a guitar-heavy bedrock. It seems Postie is all grown up, or at least as much as he can be.

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