An unreleased album from Mac Miller was teased last night during Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles, with a trailer advertising that his lost project “Balloonerism” would arrive “soon.”
The two-and-a-half minute trailer aired between sets from Sampha and Alchemist & Friends, featuring a series of animated vignettes before the supposed album cover appeared with the message “soon.” The trailer features “The Song That Changed Everything,” allegedly featuring SZA, and “5 Dollar Pony Rides,” both of which fans have speculated were intended for the original album.
The album cover featured at the end of the trailer features an image of Miller painted by artist Alim Smith, who posted it to his Instagram page in Sept. 2018. A month prior, Smith posted an image in a similar style on Instagram where Miller commented, “Need this.”
“Balloonerism” has been the stuff of lore for fans of Miller, who died in 2018. He was said to have recorded the project before his 2014 mixtape “Faces” over a week, with Thundercat rumored to have been involved.
Several songs assumed to be from “Balloonerism” have leaked over the years, as has a purported tracklist. In 2020, songs including “Do You Have a Destination,” “Uber” and “The Song That Changed Everything” popped up on the Internet, with SZA and Dylan Reynolds apparently featured on a few of the tracks. On SoundCloud, Miller fans have assembled various iterations of “Balloonerism,” featuring additional songs “Colors and Shapes,” “Stoned” and “Tambourine Dream.”
Miller died from an accidental overdose in 2018. Two years later, his estate released the posthumous album “Circles,” intended to be a companion to his 2018 project “Swimming.”