In the year and a half following his multi-platinum full-length debut,
Post Malone
continued his climb up the celebrity ladder, extending
Stoney
's success with the number one single "rockstar" and second-place follow-up "Psycho." Those tracks landed on his chart-topping second effort,
Beerbongs & Bentleys
, which arrived in spring 2018. With a team of producers including
Louis Bell
,
PartyNextDoor
Scott Storch
, and
London on da Track
, the set benefits from livelier beats and varied atmospherics, especially when he steps outside of his narcotic comfort zone. "Paranoid," "Rich & Sad," and "Jonestown (Interlude)" offer peeks into this tortured soul, balanced by hedonistic odes to sex, drugs, and rap-rock & roll on tracks like "Zack and Codeine," "Takin' Shots," "rockstar," and "Same Bitches."
Post
fares well when he sticks to simple, relatable topics like love and heartbreak. Wading through the murky gloom, a handful of standouts reveal themselves on the latter half of the album. "Otherside" and "Blame It on Me" bleed like lost Auto-Tuned ruminations from
808s & Heartbreak
, while the tender acoustic number "Stay" is
's most natural offering here. Additionally, guests like
Swae Lee
Ty Dolla $ign
G-Eazy
YG
21 Savage
Nicki Minaj
help bolster the album's merit. A slight improvement upon the model of his debut,
is a reflection of his lavish lifestyle and subsequently begotten hardships. ~ Neil Z. Yeung