The strain on his voice as he sings “Girl, you love me so pure” sounds like the first coming of Anderson. From there, we have Mac Miller’s playful and impressively gravely tones to enliven the title track. Miller’s singing moves from sweet and tempting on “Love Affair” to breathless and wounded on “Suspicions.” The latter of which is splendid if only because we hear Miller forcibly stopping himself from rapping, leading to an offbeat, pseudo-breakup anthem. The patter of the percussion, a light dusting of hi-hats and cymbals, and a generous smattering of tenor horns give the project ornate body. In 2011, Miller “went to Guitar Center and spent like $15,000 on random instruments” to create Blue Slide Park standout “Under the Weather.” You sounds thousands, if not millions of dollars richer. When Mac Miller saunters into a world of his own making, it sounds fantastic. He was not a “this time” artist by any stretch, but an “every time” artist since the start of the year. With You, Miller was already running circles around the slew of editorial that would shape his career narrative to the singular: “Mac Miller is good this time, really!” As he did with Macadelic, Miller released You as a statement of his ingenuity and prowess. One pass through the dynamic “A Moment 4 Jazz,” and any questions over Mac’s artistic merit all but evaporate. Twenty years old, and he produced and arranged You on his own for the sake of the art. Yes, You is a healthy dose of method acting, but let’s not forget Mac Miller made this project at 20. You is a stunning creative flex both isolated and in the context of Mac’s discography. I’m sure everyone is tired of hearing me discuss jazz, but let’s not sell ourselves short here. Narrowing in on the jazz medium, Miller was moving with purpose and the result was one of the first in a long succession of records he sounded thrilled to be creating. Slotted between the touchstone of his creative renaissance, Macadelic, and his first commercial pursuit of forms, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, You is one of Miller’s most intentional and focused projects-it’s also one of his most lighthearted. On black vinyl - Mac Miller’s jazzy, lounging alter ego Larry Lovestein certainly was back in 2012, with the release of his cigar-puffing, dark liquor-basking, cool jazz EP You.
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