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A Real Good Kid- Mike Posner
Michael Robert Henrion Posner is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and record producer. We all know him from his hit song ‘I took a pill in Ibiza’. A real good kid is not for you and me it’s an album for Mike Posner himself. It’s his grief and how he managed to come out of it, it’s a sad story of a boy who lost his father, a friend who lost his best friend in this terrible world and how that man managed to get out of that grief. The album starts with an introduction, which can be a bummer for some people who don’t like to be instructed, where Mike Posner tells us that this is an album that you have to listen to in a single sitting. Leaving our phones away for 40 mins, leaving the world away for 40 mins and immersing ourselves fully into this piece of art made by him. I did exactly as he said, I walked all the way to Nariman Point (land’s end) sat in front of the sea and put my headphones on to listen to what Posner had to offer.
This project is full of experimentation with different styles of music blended into one. There are acoustic guitars, pianos, classic cues of confessional music. There are also tropical house beats and soul orchestras which feels quite similar to Frank Ocean’s Blonde, which might be an influence on the album’s fragmented structure. Even the voicemails from his dad, an easy shortcut to pathos on many a rap record, have an impact because of how desperately we understand Posner misses him. With beautiful songs like ‘Move On’ where he says how he’s moving on in his life despite the hardships he has faced, ‘Wide Open’ which is a short and easy to listen track that also shows how Mike Posner is ready to experiment with new sounds in this album.
All in all, Mike Posner delivers the best album of his career with A Real Good Kid. Posner is honest about how life has affected him, specifically the death of his father and I was able to feel all of it. I was stuck in the emotions of this album for more than a few days and I could feel what Posner wanted to do in this album. This shows most on the likes of the moving “January 11, 2017,” or the perceptible confusion and pain of “Drip.” Maybe he is merely misunderstood, but Posner opens himself up like never before, and the results are intriguing and nothing short of stellar. More people should listen to A Real Good Kid – they’d be pleasantly surprised. This might not go on to become a big commercial success or have chart topping numbers but this is still a great album. I’d like to give this album an 8 out of 10 and I really wish you guys go and listen to it, the way it’s meant to be heard.
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