Hollywood's Bleeding Review

Music in 2019 has not been kind to us. I feel like I’ve waited all year with high expectations for every new album drop, and I’ve been disappointed every time. Logic’s Supermarket, Taylor Swift’s Lover, and Khalid’s Free Spirit left me unsatisfied.

Now here’s where Post Malone’s latest album comes into play. I had low expectations, just because most of the music that’s been released this year hasn’t blown me out of the water. But this album? It’s a whole different story.

Hollywood’s Bleeding was released on September 6. I completely forgot about it until I got home from school that day, so I hooked up my phone to the speaker in my room and proceeded to listen to the whole album. In order. Twice.

I am obsessed with this soundtrack. It far surpasses his last, which to me all sounded the same. This album, while more pop than rap, has a lot of variety between songs. I can name each track within the first few seconds of the intro, which is something I couldn’t say for his previous release.

Even the title track was great! That’s something I’ve come to set a low bar for with other albums. See Taylor Swift’s “Lover,” for example. And, Post Malone had ten other artists featured in his tracks: Meek Mill and Future, for example. My personal favorite was the collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne on “Take What You Want.” It was great to hear a classic rock icon mix with one of the most popular voices today.

The 51-minute masterpiece was full of new songs and older releases. Post Malone included “Wow.” and “Circles,” two songs that had already been released as singles to the public. He also added “Sunflower,” which was used in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But that still leaves 14 new, never-heard-before songs that fill out this album perfectly. Every track works together to create a really well-rounded collection. This album was an amazing third addition to Post Malone’s lineup, and I’m already looking forward to his next release.

By Caroline Parrish