Hello, everyone! Welcome back to my website (or welcome to my website, if you’re new here)! It’s time for another album review, this time of the newest Post Malone album, AUSTIN.

So, it’s time for me to answer a big question that seems very controversial in the online music reviewing community—a question where the answers vary a lot depending on the person—how do I feel about Post Malone’s music?

Well, I can’t fully answer this as someone who hasn’t listened to either of his first two albums—and I considered listening to those albums before this review, and I’m sure I’ll get around to that at some point, but considering some of the things I’ve heard about those albums from others, I’m not super excited to hear them, and I’m still trying to post my final year-end list for 2022, so I decided not to do that right now. But I have heard his third and fourth albums.

And before I talk about my opinions on Hollywood’s Bleeding and Twelve Carat Toothache, I do want to mention that I do know some of the songs from Post Malone’s first two albums, and I can’t say I’m really a big fan of what I’ve heard of those for the most part. I mean, I think “White Iverson” sucks, and I think most of us can probably agree on that, but I’ve never liked “rockstar” as much as a lot of people do, and while “Candy Paint” is a fun song, I can’t say I really love any song that I’ve heard from either of those albums—but again, I haven’t listened to many songs from those albums.

So, Hollywood’s Bleeding seemed to be the point when a lot of people started to like Post Malone’s music. And again, as someone who hasn’t heard either of his first two albums yet, I can’t compare it to those albums … but I’m not a fan of that album at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Hollywood’s Bleeding is a bad album; yes, I think it has some bad songs on it, especially the abysmal “Enemies” with that godawful DaBaby guest verse (just my opinion, of course), but overall there are some interesting ideas, and it’s got some moments that mostly work—and “Circles” is an absolutely fantastic pop song!

But overall, Hollywood’s Bleeding mostly felt underwhelming, and “Circles” is probably the only great song on the album in my opinion—I mean, Young Thug’s excellent guest verse on “Goodbyes” that totally steals the show might push that song to greatness, but I’d still probably only call it very good at best.

And both Hollywood’s Bleeding and Twelve Carat Toothache are albums that clearly have a lot of emotion put into them, and as much as I respect that, it doesn’t mean I have to like the albums … but speaking of which, Twelve Carat Toothache is an album that, if I’m being honest, I like more than Hollywood’s Bleeding, and I like it way more than most critics seem to. Now, that’s not to say I think it’s a great album, or anywhere close, but I like the production a lot more, and it has a few great songs on it, even though I’m not sure if any of them reach the level of “Circles” for me … although “Lemon Tree” gives it a run for its money!

To me, Twelve Carat Toothache is an album that’s inconsistent, and there are definitely some moments that don’t work for me at all, but some of the really emotional songs really hit hard, and it’s a lot more consistently enjoyable to me than Hollywood’s Bleeding.

Anyway, that’s enough of me going on and on about his previous two albums—AUSTIN seems to be more well-liked than Twelve Carat Toothache … did I end up liking it more?

Unfortunately not … in fact, I probably like this less than Hollywood’s Bleeding. And considering that, once again, there seems to be a lot of emotion here, I kind of hate to say that I don’t really like this album … but again, it’s just how I personally feel.

So, why didn’t this click for me?

Well, one of the reasons is the production/mixing. One example of a song where the production holds it back a lot for me is “Chemical”, which has some good melodies and I like some of the lyrics—there’s clearly a lot of emotion here, but something about the vocal layering in the hook just feels kind of awkward when paired with the instrumental, and overall the production has a bit of a messy feeling to it, holding the song back from hitting a lot harder.

Speaking of vocal layering, the group vocals in “Something Real” also don’t really work for me, and this is another song in which the production has a messy feeling to it, and I’m not really a fan of the reverb here. Usually in rock music—or anything close to it, like this song—I’m not really a fan of reverb, and this is no exception.

And this is something I’ve noticed throughout the album, where it often feels like the vocals and instrumentation were produced for different songs, and it becomes really distracting, especially for this style of music.

Now I will say some of the percussion sounds really good—I like the punchy snare in “Novacandy”, and the kick drum in “Texas Tea” adds some real bite to the track, and the percussion in the hook of “Enough Is Enough” sounds pretty good … and there are some other examples that I like, such as some of the snares in “Something Real” (even though at points in that song the snare sounds distractingly quiet), but the production doesn’t work for me super consistently; I don’t like the handclaps in “Landmine” or “Buyer Beware”, the latter of which also features a snare that sounds really disconnected from the rest of the instrumentation in the production … and speaking of snares that sound disconnected in the production, there’s also “Socialite”, a song I’ll have quite a bit more to say about later.

And while we’re on the topic of percussion … I may as well mention “Mourning”, which is one of the few songs here where I actually like the reverb. In this song, Posty sings about his struggles with alcohol, and also about ‘friends’ who seem to treat him more as a celebrity than a person—and considering how that must make someone feel so distant from most of society, I think the reverb really fits the mood. And it’s a really emotional song that I almost really like … but in my honest opinion, the trap beat really doesn’t fit with the song.

There’s some nice acoustic guitar on this album, but overall the instrumentals aren’t anything that really wow me that much, and at points they sound quite generic, like “Landmine” which sounds to me like a generic radio hit from the mid-2010s, especially with the annoying group vocals in the chorus. Another example is “Enough Is Enough”, which outside of the percussion I just mentioned doesn’t have much about it instrumentally that really interests me.

And even “Chemical”, a song which I like quite a bit about, has an instrumental that does sound pretty generic to me, even though the clicking percussion does sound pretty good in the mix.

And as much as “Green Thumb” has some interesting ideas lyrically, I just find the instrumental and the melodies on this track so, so, so boring … it just doesn’t click for me at all if I’m being honest.

So, what about the vocal melodies? Post Malone is a good singer (even though I often don’t like the way his vocals are produced here), but do the vocal melodies click for me?

Well … sometimes, but it really depends. Some of these hooks are pretty strong melodically, like in “Novacandy”, “Mourning”, “Chemical”, “Something Real”, and “Buyer Beware” … and also “Enough Is Enough”, even though the reverb on Posty’s vocals really holds that song back for me.

But then there are also a bunch of moments here in which the vocal melodies don’t work for me at all, like the chorus melody of “Sign Me Up”, and pretty much the entirety of “Hold My Breath” and “Green Thumb”.

And then there’s also “Overdrive”, a song which I have at least slightly more complicated opinions on. I think Posty sounds great vocally here, and I mostly like the vocal production on this track (even though I’m not really a fan of the reverb), and the percussion sounds really good in the mix … but as much as there are some vocal melodies I really like here, there’s a bit of an awkward chord change in the chorus which doesn’t really work for me, and I don’t like the whistling—unsurprisingly to me, because whistling is usually a big pet peeve of mine in music.

But another thing that holds me back from liking “Overdrive” more is the lyrics. And I get that there’s an emotional appeal to a song like this, where he just wants to be someone else’s idea of ‘cool’, possibly someone he’s romantically interested in … but romantic or otherwise, it’s not a healthy relationship if you’re going to let someone else’s idea of ‘cool’ control your life choices. And no, he’s not implying that it’s healthy, but it doesn’t have the self-awareness of a song like “You’re On Your Own, Kid” by Taylor Swift, even though I like “Overdrive” more overall. I feel like this song is supposed to come across as self-aware, but the self-awareness doesn’t seem like it’s in the actual writing if you ask me. I’m not saying this song is morally reprehensible or anything, but it’s not a song I’m really a big fan of.

And while we’re already on the topic of lyrics … well, again, there’s a lot of emotion on this album in both the vocals and the lyrics … but as much emotion as there is, a lot of the lyrics don’t really do much for me.

I will say, though, there are some moments I like lyrically—for example, I mostly like the yearning lyrics of “Something Real”. I also like the potential double-meanings on “Chemical” where it seems to be about a relationship, but also possibly about drugs—and instead of being one of those stereotypical, cliché songs comparing a relationship to drugs, it feels more interesting, and I’m not entirely sure why … but to me it seems like there’s a potential double-meaning in nearly every line. And there are other moments I like lyrically, like “Mourning” which I already mentioned, even though I do find the main line of the chorus kind of cringey—‘Don’t wanna sober up, the sun is killin’ my buzz, that’s why they call it mourning.’

But there are a bunch of lyrics here that, while I get their appeal, don’t really do much for me, partially because I don’t find them all that interesting. For example, “Novacandy”, which features lyrics about addiction, but I just personally don’t find the lyrics super interesting—I mean, there is emotion here, and I don’t think the lyrics have to be super deep or anything for me to like the song … but something just feels missing here, and I’m not sure what it is, or even whether it’s in the lyrics or the sound.

But there are also a shockingly large amount of lyrics on this album about in which the narrator is driving unsafely, and as far as I can tell, none of it shows that the narrator is in the wrong. And while I’m sure it’s not meant to take seriously, it really doesn’t sit well with me. And a big example of this is what I think is the worst song on the album, “Speedometer”, in which he’s talking about speeding on the road, and then a police officer shows up and he defends himself and tries to get away with it—and again, I’m sure it’s not meant to be taken seriously, but it still really makes me want to stay away from the song … and it’s not like I don’t think the song would have sucked otherwise, partially because of the really annoying chorus, but I also really don’t like the bassline, and there’s a synth that continues throughout the song that I find really annoying as well. And considering the lyrics, the upbeat feeling of the track really doesn’t fit in my opinion, and I think this song is abysmal.

And while we’re on the topic of the worst songs on the album … there’s also “Socialite”, which I said I’d have more to say about … well, first of all, there’s the ‘doing cul-de-sac donuts’ line—and it’s worth mentioning that I don’t drive yet, therefore my knowledge of driving isn’t very high, but I’m almost positive that isn’t very safe. And there are also the lyrics in the chorus about self-destruction, and while I get that there’s an emotional appeal to this, it just feels really icky to me, with the line, ‘fuck me up, it’s only a body.’ Even though it’s not meant seriously, nor is the ‘donuts’ line, I definitely don’t want to listen to it, especially when the vocal melodies are so weak in my opinion, and the reverb, like on so many songs here, feels really distracting. Oh, and there’s also one of the cringiest lyrics on this entire album, maybe the cringiest—‘I’m calling her Shrek ‘cause she got a donkey.’ Um … I’m not really sure what to say about that.

If you want me to say more positive things … well, there’s also “Laugh It Off”, which, as far as I can tell, is a very simple song. It’s got a carefree attitude which I think fits really well with the instrumentation, and it’s got some of the best vocal melodies on the album! I also really like the hard-hitting drums at the end of the track! And it’s easily my favourite song here!

But overall … as much emotion as there is here, it’s not really an album that’s clicking for me personally. There are some cool ideas, but it’s an album that I get the appeal of way more than it’s an album I actually like.

So, for me, AUSTIN is getting a 4.5/10. From pretty much everything I’ve heard, Posty seems like a really great guy, but I can’t say I’m a big fan of his music, at least based on what I’ve heard of it.

But, of course, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments down below. Also, as always, feel free to let me know if there are any albums you want me to review. It doesn’t guarantee I’ll review it, but I’m happy to hear recommendations.

I’m feeling optimistic that I can actually get my favourite songs of 2022 posted in August, and I’ve been making progress on it … and I’ve also got another mini review post I’m working on, but I’m not sure when that’ll be out.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 4.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Something Real”, “Novacandy”, “Laugh It Off”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Socialite”, “Speedometer”, “Hold My Breath”, “Green Thumb”