By Bridget McLearie
Correspondent
The best way to describe Post Malone’s new album, “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” is complete vulnerability and angst. His lyrics are a mix of him flexing his wealth and him dealing with the drain of holding up stable relationships in Hollywood.
With every new album, Post gains more listeners and maintains his relevance in the music world with new creations. His past two albums, “Stoney” and “Beerbongs & Bentleys,” helped with his road to fame, as they both have 200 million to a billion streams.
He was able to maintain his status as one of the top-tier celebrities without even releasing an album for a year.
However, what distinguishes Post is his realistic view of the popularity he has worked so hard to achieve. He is aware of his status in Hollywood and expresses his feelings towards how the system can take a toll on celebrities, specifically himself. He explores how his relationships are affected by not only his popularity, but also his money.
One special aspect of “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is the number of featured artists. Typically, Malone’s songs all have a similar vibe to them. His soft voice is unmistakable, and the well-known artists that he features compliment him nicely.
Post puts emphasis on the stress of dating in Hollywood in the song “A Thousand Bad Times,” where he expresses how he can endure the same emotional blows repeatedly because he has the richness and luxury to recover.
“You try to burn my house down, but what’s another house to me? ’Cause I can take anything that you give me. It’s gonna take a lot more to kill me,” he sings.
The first four songs are high energy, and this one slows the mood down while keeping a solid beat.
Post mixes new age hip hop and old rock in a way never before imagined or expected in “Take What You Want.” He features artists Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott to form an unlikely trio. Osbourne’s 70-year-old voice gives the song an electricity that is hard to reproduce in today’s music industry.
He also features artists DaBaby, Future, Halsey, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, SZA, Swae Lee and Young Thug. Compared to his album “Stoney,” which has no features, this album has much more color. Malone has a great voice, yet sometimes his songs can mesh together. The variation of these featured artists contrast from his previous work, and make his new songs more distinct.
The song “On The Road” featuring Meek Mill and Lil Baby calls out the fake friends he has dealt with throughout his career.
Naturally, Post put out a few songs from this album before it was released. The song “Sunflower” featuring Swae Lee was a groundbreaking song that racked up over a billion plays on Spotify alone ever since “Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse” came out.
“Sunflower” is the favorite song of the movie’s protagonist, Miles Morales, and is brought up to symbolize the loyalty he has in his friends. Other than being released almost a year before the rest of the album, “Sunflower” differs from the rest because it is less angsty and the music on the track is very different.
To follow up, “Wow” and “Goodbyes” feat. Young Thug racked up almost a billion plays together on Spotify.
“Wow” has a consistent and catchy beat with captivating lyrics about how far Post has come in the music industry. “Goodbyes” featuring Young Thug has a more mellow beat, and the lyrics describing how hard it is to balance having a relationship and focusing on music.
Songs like “I’m Gonna Be,” “Staring At The Sun” featuring SZA and “Internet” have more somber tones, and address the downfalls to having money and popularity. In the song “ Internet,” Post talks about how the internet is toxic and how he can’t keep anything to himself. “Staring At The Sun” addresses the ignorance that comes with a complicated relationship.
“If you keep staring at the sun, you won’t see what you have become, this can’t be everything you thought it was, blinded by the thought of us,” he sings, in reference to the fact that his relationship might not be healthy and his girlfriend would rather not address the issue.
The songs “I Know” and “Myself” sound like mellow background music— they don’t hit hard as the others do, but they definitely give an emotional touch to the album. “I Know” addresses the disappointment of a failed relationship, while maintaining a soft beat. “Myself” talks about how Post goes on so many adventures that he can’t truly experience to the fullest potential because of his fame.
Post dares to put Hollywood on the spot, as many have done before. He has the fame to be able to bash the system without repercussion and give his honest opinions to his audience.
You don’t need to be a Post Malone fan to appreciate “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” as there is a song for everybody on this album.
