Beerbongs & Bentleys

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 Post's most natural offering here. Additionally, guests like Swae Lee, Ty Dolla $ign, G-Eazy, YG, 21 Savage, and Nicki Minaj help bolster the album's merit. A slight improvement upon the model of his debut, Beerbongs & Bentleys is a reflection of his lavish lifestyle and subsequently begotten hardships. ~ Neil Z. Yeung