Like bubble bath or a frozen margarita, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series is a simple concept with effective results. By now you know how it goes. And even if you don’t the clue is in the name: someone rocks up to a desk in the NPR office and plays some music. The only lie is that the desk is not actually tiny at all.
Over the years a load of forward-thinking and generally great musicians have taken to the Tiny Desk to parlay their songs into intimate yet expansive musical voyages. Just take a trip over to NPR’s website where you’ll find sets running the gamut from Jay Som to Sampha to Noname (one of the all-time bests, no competition, snatch all the money from my bank account and throw it all on this bet, etc).
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Today, it’s the turn of Mac Miller, who released his fifth studio album Swimming last Friday (watch above). For those who haven’t heard it, Mac’s new one is a relatively chill and sombre affair yet also simultaneously offers upbeat respite, like sunshine through the window on a gloomy morning. The opening track states, “And I was drowning, but now I’m swimming / Through stressful waters to relief” – a pretty accurate summation of the journey that’s infused throughout the record.
All of which is to say, Miller’s Tiny Desk performance presents the up-and-down of these feelings at their most intimate and raw. Kicking off with “Small Worlds”, he then follows up with the Thundercat-featuring track “What’s The Use” – one of the stand-out and (given that it features the world’s best bassist™) most funky songs on the record. The atmosphere in the room is almost infectious; Thundercat grins and at one point during a bass solo Miller almost cracks up in awe of his band mate’s talent. Lastly we get “2009”, which is backed up by a string quartet. Lap that all up above.
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