Album: Faces – Mac Miller
Pressing: 093624881391 – Warner Bros Inc., 3x Stereo LP
Color: Yellow Opaque
Faces was originally released in 2014 and was Mac Miller’s best work as it dived into his struggles with addiction and mental health. I’d consider it his magnum opus so I definitely didn’t want to miss grabbing a copy. I almost missed it since the shipping to Canada was $40 USD but thankfully, Amazon Canada had some copies for a more reasonable price. While Faces has always been one of the most popular projects from Mac, there seemed to be a lot of issues with sample clearance which is why it never ended up on streaming services or had physical runs. A lot of original samples had to be cut for the release including Bill Murray’s lines, the interview snippets, and the Gummo samples. Although it’s a little disappointing, I’m pretty sure Mac had to do the same for Macadelic and the OG version will still be available online so it’s not that big of a deal. Either way, it sounds great and I’m just glad that we finally get physical versions of Faces.
The overall packaging is great and features the original artwork from Mac’s brother Miller McCormick instead of the updated, 3D version for the streaming versions. Both the inner sleeves and jacket are made of cardboard which makes it sturdier than typical paper sleeves. There’s some extra artwork from Mac’s brother as well as a picture of Mac and his dog Ralphie (who starred in the new “Colors and Shapes” music video). The back of the album features Miller McCormick’s rendition of the original Faces cover that Mac doodled when he was originally making the mixtape. The inner sleeves have the lyrics printed on them and the typography is reminiscent of the Circles and Swimming aesthetics. There’s a bonus song called “Yeah” which appears on this re-released version of Faces that was originally leaked as “8:21 AM”.
While the packaging is way more solid than traditional vinyl releases, it does irk me that all three discs of Faces are housed in a single sleeve. I don’t know what it is with hip-hop records and no gatefolds but unfortunately, Faces has the problem where everything is stuffed together. The outer jacket is made a little bigger to compensate for it but at the end of the day, it’s rather annoying. It’s a shame because everything else is so well-designed from the extra abstract art to the cardboard lyric sleeves. My copy of Faces also didn’t arrive with an outer sleeve so I had to grab an extra to put it in.
The sound quality of the Faces pressing is phenomenal and the mixing has a touch of intimacy in the same way that Circles did. You can hear it well on songs like “Grand Finale” where the guitar riff and subtle piano glide effortlessly to Mac’s rhymes. There’s no skips, surface noise, or distortion that were noticeable on my first few listens and there were no signs of warping on the discs. The opaque yellow color gives the discs a striking appearance while it spins and the labels also feature the unique typography. Apart from the fact that all the discs are grouped together, the Faces pressing is exceptional and it’s incredible to finally hear Mac’s best work on wax. Hopefully, the success of Faces will pave the way for more of Mac’s work on vinyl as there are a few projects that have yet to receive an official pressing.