Balloonerism, the previously unreleased album recorded by Mac Miller in 2014, will feature two special guests: SZA and the late rapper’s alter ego, Delusional Thomas. Ahead of the record’s Jan. 17 arrival, the Miller estate shared the complete track list for the album, which periodically surfaced in leaks online but has never been officially released.
The 14-track record will be previewed with “5 Dollar Pony Rides,” the single scheduled for release on Jan. 9 at 12 p.m. EST. A snippet for the song was featured in a trailer for the album played at Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw in November. The clip also included “DJ’s Chord Organ,” the SZA-assisted record fans previously referred to as “The Song That Changed Everything.”
Around the time Balloonerism was being recorded, Miller produced two tracks on SZA’s third EP, Z. They included “Ur” and “Warm Winds,” a collaboration with Isaiah Rashad. “I don’t think this young lady knows how amazing she is,” he told Red Bull in 2014. Following the rapper’s death in September 2018, the singer-songwriter published an emotional tribute that referred to Miller as “the first person to believe in me.”
The SZA tracks Miller produced were credited under Larry Fisherman, one name on his sprawling list of pseudonyms. Delusional Thomas, listed as a featured guest on “Transformations,” is another. This alter ego dates back to 2013, when the rapper followed up his second studio album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, with the self-produced and independently-released mixtape Delusional Thomas.
“To me, it was a character, and I wanted to give his whole own complete, like, everything,” Miller told Vice at the time. The Larry Fisherman-produced record found him, or rather Delusional Thomas, rapping in a high-pitched voice. “There was part of me that wanted to do my own voice, but I just wanted it to be its own complete character,” he added. “And I feel like that evil voice inside your head is always kind of in that pitch.”
When the Miller estate announced plans to release Balloonerism in November, it described the record as being “a project that was of great importance to Maclom — to the extent that he commissioned artwork for it and discussions concerning when it should be released were had regularly.” Other releases ultimately overshadowed those plans until now. The album will arrive on the fifth anniversary of Circles, the first posthumous album from Miller completed by producer Jon Brion in the wake of his death.
Mac Miller Balloonerism Track List
1. “Tambourine Dream”
2. “DJ’s Chord Organ”
3. “Do You Have a Destination?”
4. “5 Dollar Pony Rides”
5. “Friendly Hallucinations”
6. “Mrs. Deborah Downer”
7. “Stoned”
8. “Shangri-La”
9. “Funny Papers”
10. “Excelsior”
11. “Transformations”
12. “Manakins”
13. “Rick’s Piano”
14. “Tomorrow Will Never Know”
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