Twelve Carat Toothache

About

When he wasn’t flying around the world, selling out arenas and headlining music festival, Post Malone had spent the past several years cooking up a stream of blockbuster hits from his tight-knit, dimly lit studio in the middle of Hollywood. Then, when the pandemic hit, claustrophobia—and a bad case of writer's block—set in. “I felt so cramped,” the singer-songwriter born Austin Post tells Apple Music. Restless and eager for a change of pace, he and his team moved into a house in Malibu right on the water. “It was just so freeing,” he say. “I was like, ‘I'm not scared to express myself or make music or write song.’” It was during these laidback, free-form sessions—enhanced by magic mushrooms and fresh salt air—that the genre-defying artist wrote most of his fourth album <i>Twelve Carat Toothache</i>. The somber, reflective project closes out what seems to have been a difficult chapter of Post’s life: Several songs reference his struggles with fame (“Reputation”), drugs (“Wasting Angels” featuring The Kid LAROI), and booze (“Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol” featuring Fleet Foxes), painting the portrait of an addict stuck in a dark cycle of destructive benders and frustrated apologie. “I’m 26,” he say. “There’s been some kick-ass times—and not in a good way. I was not normal. My brain was not operating at its normal frequency. I just wasn’t…Austin. I was so fucking lost. For a long time I didn’t know how to [cope with success].” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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