Mac Miller’s revered mixtape Faces makes its way to streaming services

Seven years ago on Mother’s Day, Pittsburgh rapper and songwriter Mac Miller released a mixtape called “Faces” for free download. It was bookended by 2013’s “Watching Movies with the Sound Off ” and 2015’s “GO:OD AM”. With a 90-minute runtime and an impressive roster of features, the album was—and still is—lauded as one of the best projects Miller ever released.

The mixtape was added to major music streaming services on Oct. 15 of this year, giving new Mac Miller fans a chance to listen to the album and revisit this entry in his prolific discography.

“Should’ve died already,” Miller sang to open “Inside Outside,” the first track on the album. Lyricism is a hallmark of Miller’s work, and his later projects were increasingly upfront about the demons he faced. Listening to “Faces” three years after the rapper’s death makes its prophetic nature even more haunting.

Themes of drug addiction, Miller’s fame and wrestling with mental illness are prominent throughout. With tracks like “Ave Maria” switching quickly from his lifelong struggle to find happiness and his love of Polo pajamas, listeners get a sense of the whirlwind lifestyle Miller led.

On “San Francisco,” Miller welcomes us to “the dark side of…[his] bizarre mind” and talks about taking LSD. This track leads into “Colors and Shapes,” which was the only track released as a single ahead of the mixtape’s move to streaming services. A deeply introspective look at Miller’s struggles, the song covers his belief that he might not be able to convey the beauty in his mind and that the only way forward is to let go.

The fixation on drug use and its pitfalls span a vast majority of the mixtape. At times the project’s understated and lengthy nature allow concerning admissions of his struggles to fall through the cracks. “Polo Jeans” is a perfect example of this. Miller opens the song with the lines “I go nuts ‘cause I smoke dust, overdosed on the sofa, dead. Woke up from a coma, poured up with a soda, smoked, went back to bed.” Even a near death experience isn’t enough for Miller to come to terms with his self-destructive behavior, speaking to the dejection and helplessness that often manifest alongside addiction.

“Faces” is one of the clearest looks at Miller’s struggles with drugs and mental health. Many were caught off
guard when he died, but his work and its energy hide nothing about his state of mind. “Faces,” with its
extensive discussion of drug abuse and luxurious living, is an early indication that money and success could not bring Miller happiness. For longtime fans, the version on streaming services is lacking a few familiar samples but will still be an enjoyable revisit. For new fans, “Faces” is an essential contribution to Miller’s discography and illuminates that the man who released “GO:OD AM” was the exact same man who worked on “Circles,” and sometimes hindsight makes things clear a little too late.