When Post Malone revealed he was working on his fourth album in 2021, he reportedly wanted the new tunes to “lift up people".
However, it seems the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and resultant lack of touring opportunities sent him down a darker, introspective path.
The new Twelve Carat Toothache, which was released on Friday, is the US pop star's most personal album yet and is full of the ruminations that come from being cooped up indoors — even if it’s a $3 million mansion in Utah.
That being said, Malone hasn’t lost his knack for genre-bending tunes, with his dynamic vocals seamlessly shifting between croons and melodic raps to a rock snarl.
Such transitions keep the album engrossing and cements Malone’s standing as one of the great artists of his era.
Here are three things know about Twelve Carat Toothache.
1. Being famous is not fun
Malone follows a long line of musicians bemoaning the destructive and isolating nature of fame. In that sense, the subjects explored in Twelve Carat Toothache is a neat accompaniment to 2019's Hollywood’s Bleeding.
Where those songs marvelled at the excess of celebrity, Malone is more circumspect in the follow-up. "I'm a damn fool," he laments in the album's opener Reputation, a lush and cinematic piano ballad about past mistakes.
The shoe-gazing is deeper in Insane, where Malone owns up to his poor and misogynistic behaviour with women ("Don't you believe me? / You can ask her," he sings).
That self-loathing attitude, however, is tempered with the kind of winning trap hip-hop beats that made Wow a club staple.
Dark lyricism and bouncy production is also found in I Cannot Be (A Sadder Song), which finds Malone arguing with an ex-partner about their toxic relationship: "I know that I ain't perfect, but you so mean."
2. No big musical surprises
In Twelve Carat Toothache, Malone doubles down on his musical choices. A lot of this is down to collaborating with long-time producer Louis Bell, who co-wrote all 14 tracks.
The sounds are lush, expansive and ambient.
The record sidesteps most of the abrupt beat and tempo changes currently popular in mainstream hip-hop, instead the songs have been created to wash over listeners.
When it works, such as in future hits Wrapped Around Your Finger and When I Am Alone — the latter of which Malone's tenor eerily resembles The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers — the album is sublime.
The commitment to such an approach results in some filler tracks such as the plodding Euthanasia and Wasting Angels; which is an unfortunate waste of a collaboration with Malone’s heir apparent The Kid Laroi.
3. It is tailor-made for streaming
By keeping the tracks sonically uniform and at a brisk 43 minutes, Twelve Carat Toothache is perfect for streaming and it doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Buoyed by the success of Hollywood's Bleeding, Malone ended 2019 as Spotify's most streamed artist with 6.5 billion streams.
Judging by the follow-up, Malone is once again in the running to finish this year on top.
