# Circles (Mac Miller album)
**Circles** is the sixth studio album by the American rapper and singer [Mac Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/mac-miller), released posthumously on January 17, 2020, through [Warner Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/warner-records), completed by the producer and composer [Jon Brion](https://www.edgepedia.org/jon-brion) after Miller's death in September 2018, and followed posthumously by *Balloonerism* in 2025.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews) • [2](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles) • [16](https://music.apple.com/us/album/balloonerism/1780891320) Miller conceived it as a companion to his 2018 album *Swimming*, so that the two records together would form the idea of "swimming in circles".[2](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles) • [3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | January 17, 2020, Warner Records; Miller's sixth studio album[1](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews) • [16](https://music.apple.com/us/album/balloonerism/1780891320) |
| Completion | Miller was well into recording when he died on September 7, 2018; Jon Brion finished the album with his family's support[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003347707) • [5](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/) |
| Concept | A sister album to the Grammy-nominated *Swimming* (2018), trading rap for singing, live instrumentation, and confessional songwriting[2](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles) |
| Length | 14 tracks, from the title track "Circles" to "Floating"[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/details) |
| Critical reception | Metascore of 83, "universal acclaim", based on 14 critic reviews, all positive[1](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews) |
| Commercial peak | Number three on the Billboard 200[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1855626/000182912623001595/royaltytraders_ex13-7.pdf) |
| Notable songs | Lead single "Good News"; cover of Arthur Lee's 1972 "Everybody's Gotta Live"; "Blue World", built on The Four Freshmen's "It's a Blue World"[8](https://time.com/5914984/best-songs-2020/) • [4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003347707) |
## Background and completion
Miller, born Malcolm James McCormick in 1992, died on September 7, 2018, one month after releasing his critically acclaimed fifth album *Swimming*, from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 26.[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003347707) • [3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/) He had been working with Jon Brion, the producer and composer known for work with [Fiona Apple](https://www.edgepedia.org/fiona-apple), Kanye West, and [Frank Ocean](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-ocean), on material for both albums; the plan was to finish and release *Swimming*, tour it, and then return to complete the second record.[9](https://realstreetradio.com/how-i-finished-mac-millers-circles/) • [10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-perils-of-the-posthumous-rap-album)
Brion described how the material began: when the two first met, Miller was working on *Swimming* and mentioned "other things" he was not sure what to do with; those songs became the beginning of *Circles*.[11](https://music.apple.com/us/album/circles/1494022962) After Miller's death, his family announced the album on January 10, 2020, writing that "this is a complicated process that has no right answer. No clear path. We simply know that it was important to Malcolm for the world to hear it."[2](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles) • [5](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/) With the family's support, Brion completed the record based on the conversations the two had shared, adding live percussion, strings, and various overdubs.[11](https://music.apple.com/us/album/circles/1494022962)
## Music and themes
Where *Swimming* mixed rap and song, *Circles* was intended as an "all song" counterpart, and it largely is one: Miller does almost no rapping, moving instead between lo-fi beat music and singer-songwriter indie folk with almost entirely live arrangements.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/) Critics heard the influence of [John Lennon](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-lennon)'s Plastic Ono Band-era work, 1970s soft rock, and [Harry Nilsson](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-nilsson) more than hip-hop.[5](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/) • [11](https://music.apple.com/us/album/circles/1494022962) The Guardian noted that the musical mood is light while the lyrics weigh heavy, circling back on guilt and self-reproach.[12](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/18/mac-miller-circles-review)
The album's subject is working through depression and finding a measure of peace. Pitchfork's review framed it as the more optimistic half of the pair: *Swimming* was about being fine on the surface while struggling with anxiety, while *Circles* is about knowing there is something to be done about it.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/) On "Good News" Miller likens recovery to spring cleaning; on "Surf" he sings "There's water in the flowers / Let's grow"; on "Complicated" he muses, "Some people say they want to live forever. That's way too long, I'll just get through the day."[5](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/)
**Selected songs.** "Hands" is the only full rap song on the album, working through negativity with the knotty lyricism Miller developed as a teenager.[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/) "Everybody" is a cover of Arthur Lee's 1972 song "Everybody's Gotta Live", which AllMusic noted Miller made sound even more dour, concluding "Everybody's gotta live/Everybody's gonna die."[4](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003347707) "Blue World" interpolates [The Four Freshmen](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-four-freshmen)'s "It's a Blue World" and was produced with Guy Lawrence of [Disclosure](https://www.edgepedia.org/disclosure-band).[12](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/18/mac-miller-circles-review) • [13](https://musicbrainz.org/release/d60d0d06-7200-4e4d-aefd-5deb9e5674a2) Wendy Melvoin of Prince's Revolution plays guitar or bass on a couple of tracks, with Miller and Brion playing almost everything else.[12](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/18/mac-miller-circles-review)
## Reception
*Circles* received universal acclaim from critics: its Metacritic Metascore of 83 rests on 14 reviews, every one classified as positive.[1](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews) The Independent gave it 100, writing that on *Swimming* Miller was adrift searching for a place of comfort, and on *Circles* "it sounds as though, if only for the briefest of moments, he found it".[1](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews) Rolling Stone's 70 called it "a fitting coda to his career" while judging it short of *Swimming*'s piercing introspection.[14](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles) Time described the album as "a heartbreaking plea for peace from a man who had spent a relentless decade in the spotlight", while noting that some placeholder lyrics and demo-like instrumental parts suggest Miller might have finished it differently had he lived.[5](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/)
Commercially, the album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.[7](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1855626/000182912623001595/royaltytraders_ex13-7.pdf) Metacritic ranked it the number 82 best album of 2020 and the number 26 most discussed album of that year.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/details) In release-week promotion, three fan pop-up exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, and [Pittsburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/pittsburgh) offered front-to-back listenings in Ultra HD audio, with net proceeds from merchandise going to The Mac Miller Fund.[2](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles)
## Place in Miller's work
*Circles* is widely treated as the closing half of a two-album statement. Pitchfork wrote that as halves of a complete work, *Swimming* and *Circles* come the closest to reconciling the two sides of Miller, the rapper and the 1970s singer-songwriter devotee, and called the album "the culmination of a career spent improving".[3](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/) In a New Yorker essay on posthumous rap albums, Sheldon Pearce wrote that no album better closes the wound left by an artist's death than *Circles*, calling it the product of friends, family, collaborators, and label putting the art first.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-perils-of-the-posthumous-rap-album) A second posthumous Miller album, *Balloonerism*, followed in 2025; the Associated Press wrote that *Circles* "showed an artist in fabulous control of his sound, spare but full".[15](https://apnews.com/article/b19dfd3ad2c764835ac13b3958924d77)
## References
1. [Circles by Mac Miller – Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/critic-reviews)
2. [Mac Miller's Family Announces Final Mac Miller Studio Album, Circles, Warner Records](https://www.warnerrecords.com/news/mac-millers-family-announces-final-mac-miller-studio-album-circles)
3. [Mac Miller: Circles Album Review, Pitchfork (Sheldon Pearce)](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mac-miller-circles/)
4. [Mac Miller: Circles – Review, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/MW0003347707)
5. [Mac Miller's Posthumous Album Circles Is a Heartbreaking Plea For Inner Peace, Time](https://time.com/5765778/mac-miller-circles-review/)
6. [Circles – Details, Tracks, and Credits, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles/mac-miller/details)
7. [SongVest offering statement, Exhibit 13.7, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1855626/000182912623001595/royaltytraders_ex13-7.pdf)
8. [The 10 Best Songs of 2020, Time](https://time.com/5914984/best-songs-2020/)
9. [How I Finished Mac Miller's Circles, Real Street Radio](https://realstreetradio.com/how-i-finished-mac-millers-circles/)
10. [The Perils of the Posthumous Rap Album, The New Yorker (Sheldon Pearce)](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-perils-of-the-posthumous-rap-album)
11. [Circles – Album by Mac Miller, Apple Music (Jon Brion commentary)](https://music.apple.com/us/album/circles/1494022962)
12. [Mac Miller: Circles review – a last look inward for a complex talent, The Guardian (Kitty Empire)](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/18/mac-miller-circles-review)
13. [Release "Circles" by Mac Miller, MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/release/d60d0d06-7200-4e4d-aefd-5deb9e5674a2)
14. [Circles by Mac Miller – Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/music/circles)
15. [Music Review: Mac Miller's lost album 'Balloonerism' is airy and experimental, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/b19dfd3ad2c764835ac13b3958924d77)
16. [Balloonerism by Mac Miller on Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/balloonerism/1780891320)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Hip hop albums › Trap and melodic rap albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license