GO:OD AM marks a significant shift in the career of Mac Miller. Despite his first studio album Blue Slide Park reaching top spot on the Billboard 200, the first independently produced album to do so in the last twenty-years, it was poorly received by critics. His second studio album Watching Movies With the Sound Off was certainly a step in the right direction, if not the finished article. Signing his first official record deal with Warner Bros has sparked emcee Miller into life, ditching previously overused formulas and taking his music more seriously.

Although the Pittsburgh rapper has never been questioned about his beat making pedigree, a charge often levelled at him was that his lyrics were too cheesy and he was too reliant on average hooks. This is undeniably not the case on GO:OD AM. He displays a maturity in his lyrics, exploring recent troubles with drug addiction and depression, with a series of high profile collaborations. From the energetic Ab-Soul on ‘Two Matches’ to the hypnotic vocals of Little Dragon on ‘The Festival’, each featuring artist enhances the record rather than appearing for the sake of it.

The record opener ‘Doors’, produced by Tyler, the Creator, sets the tone for the album as the twenty two year old reflects on recent troubles before transitioning into ‘Brand Name’ where he tackles being happy in the face of material wealth. Every song on the record seems to flow unnoticed and undisturbed into the next, none more so than ‘When In Rome’ which explodes in the aftermath of the epic nine-minute ‘Perfect Circle’. This latest instalment of Miller’s work highlights just how far he has come, proving a far more complete, complex and coherent piece of work, one which will see him live up to the hype which surrounded his earlier works on mixtapes such as K.I.D.S and Macadelic.

His latest record must surely be seen as Miller’s biggest coup in the world of hip-hop to date. A record not full to the brim of single sellers, but a truly finished project.

Niall Ballinger