Post Malone - Hollywood's Bleeding

RATING: 2/5

Recently, Post Malone released a new album, Hollywood’s Bleeding. Seventeen new Post Malone tracks, two being songs we’ve had access to for a while now: “Wow.” and “Sunflower”. “Sunflower” became widely popular due to being released as part of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2019) soundtrack. Hollywood’s Bleeding veers a bit from Post Malone’s pop rap sound, taking a more diverse route with genres like rock, pop, rap, and the list goes on. This branching of genres on this album does not surprise me at all considering Malone has talked a lot about loving all kinds of genres of music and not wanting to be tied to a certain genre, "I'm just making music".

Post worked with a lot more unique, and seemingly mainstream artists this time around which is one of the things that contributes to the change in sound heard on this album. The artists who appear on the album offer a lot to the genre of songs. For example, without Ozzy, “Take What You Want” would probably sound like another song off of beerbongs and bentleys. Although this is definitely a song where you can tell Post is touching into his roots of musical inspiration, one can only imagine the excitement Post was experiencing while working with a rock legend/icon. The features from Ozzy and Travis offer a good balance of rock and hip hop that compliment the gritty, edgy vibe from Post, making this one of the top tracks on the album. This song definitely reaches across and offers entertainment for all generations. It has a new sound that is unique to listeners and will be a good direction for Post to use for his artistic/musical growth in the future. There is something retro, yet modern, thematically happening throughout this album. I can’t quite explain what it is setting that vibe, but I think overall it works in Posts’ favor for this body of work. Despite Malone’s heavy reliance on the featuring artists for diversity of genre on the album, they are rad features. DaBaby’s verse is really fun. Young Thug, great. Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott on the same song is a fun surprise. “Die For Me” was a perfect song for a Halsey feature, sounding like it belongs more on one of her albums than his.

In terms of production, Hollywood’s Bleeding is a very minimalistic album. Though this is typical for the stereotypical “less is more” trope that is the pop genre, Post Malone really puts in the edge and grit that sets the tone for the whole album. The melodies are simple and very catchy, but the vocals just seem to have a little something different than his previous albums. It’s almost as if he is playing around with how to adapt his sound and grow as an artist, and although there is something different about this album, I wouldn’t consider it a personal growth. Frankly, this is a good album for Post to transition from in terms of artistic growth. There is definitely development happening here, but he still hasn’t tapped into his full potential as a songwriter. Besides this new development of a grittier sound, this overtly pop album just doesn’t seem like the best step forward. We hear a lot of beats that seem very similar. For example; “On The Road” has vocal lines that resemble “Rockstar” from his previous album. Also, “ Allergic” and “A Thousand Bad Times” have very similar drum tracks which is interesting considering those two are right next to each other on the album.

While it is a good album, it doesn’t really offer anything new from Post Malone himself because it doesn’t show much growth. This album is easy to overlook because its lack of newness, there are a few gems that will most likely easily be overlooked because they are buried within an album of songs which don’t offer anything new. If I wanted to listen to the same old Post Malone, I could just queue up Stoney or beerbongs and bentleys…