Many artists have had bursts of success and recorded albums of redemption, reflecting pitifully on their mistakes and the lessons that have led them to a stronger sense of clarity. Many artists have skewed expectations by abruptly switching genres with little word or warning, instead allowing the music and accompanying shock tactic to speak for itself. I was not expecting either when Mike Posner’s new EP ‘The Truth’ landed in my inbox, even less so the level of nuance and raw, honest storytelling he unveils.
For those who are not familiar, Mike Posner rose to fame in 2010 with a single called ‘Cooler Than Me’, an infectious synth-pop hit with a repetitive lyric about snobby peers who feel they’re above him. Less jaded and more cleverly cynical, it was a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit and followed by a top 20 in the form of ‘Please Don’t Go’. Both songs came from his debut album ’31 Minutes To Takeoff’, and along with third single ‘Bow Chicka Wow Wow’ (featuring Lil Wayne) in 2011, Mike established a pretty good platform for himself. However, subsequent standalone singles failed to do anything, and as with most breakout stars the world came crashing down for him, leading him to take a backseat role in writing songs for his more successful pop counterparts (Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Labrinth, Nick Jonas, Avicii, Big Sean, Nelly, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa and more).
And it’s the fallout from rising to the top as quickly as he fell that is the subject of lead single from the project ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’. Simple in its acoustic guitar picking, Mike slides easily into the pop/Americana/folk troubadour niche with the starkness of the first line, “I took a pill in Ibiza to show Avicii I was cool, and when I finally got sober I felt ten years older, but fuck it it was something to do.” He continues, setting the scene, “I’m living out in LA, I drive a sports car just to prove I’m a real big baller cause I made a million dollars, and I spend it on cars and shoes.” But this is far from the kind of boastful pop/hip hop lyrics Mike comes from, and the chorus grabs us in its poignancy, “But you don’t wanna be high like me, never really knowing why like me, you don’t ever wanna step off that rollercoaster and be all alone. You don’t wanna ride the bus like this, never knowing who to trust like this, you don’t wanna be stuck up on that stage singing, all I know are sad songs.” He goes on to admit his commercial career is over as people have forgotten his big hit, and how he can’t commit to a relationship because he struggles to open up to people. ‘I Took A Pill In Ibiza’ is not only incredibly raw and beautiful as a piece of music, but also contains a lyric that is astonishingly honest and also disarmingly sad.
Sometimes, all you need is a song. And despite the arena in which Mike launched, he shows the kind of heart and humility usually found in the indie singer/songwriter, not someone who famously got lost in the self-indulgence of commercial hip hop and EDM. He goes further to admitting his mistakes and empty adventures on ‘Buried In Detroit’, a stream of consciousness following his experiences round the world but always returning to that one eternal fact: that he will be buried in Detroit, his hometown. That no matter what he does, he will always be the man who was made by Detroit. The memories of that place haunt him like stories of what could have been, just like the first love he lost in ‘Not That Simple’, an infectious but delightfully simple pop song. “Now you’re just someone in my mind who used to be mine,” he muses.
But Mike saves his most potent wisdom for the final track on the EP, ‘Be As You Are’, about the advice his mother gave him at various struggle points during his life. The beauty in this song is the specificity of the verses combined with the universality of the chorus, “There are moments when you fall to the ground, but you are stronger than you feel you are now. You don’t always have to speak so loud, no, just be as you are. It doesn’t matter if you become some star, life is better when you open your heart. You don’t always have to act so hard, no, just be as you are.” This feels like something of a mission statement for Mike, encompassing everything this EP had to say all the while throwing out tongue-in-cheek references to his change in sound, grown-out hair and re-evaluated principles.
Perhaps he sees this record as simply sharing his experiences and lessons learned over the past five years. Perhaps it is a warning to other prospective artists just beginning their careers in the industry with stars in their eyes. Either way, it is a tantalizing taste of what is to come, from a pop artist that surprised us all by making some real, honest, organic music that doesn’t sound contrived or forced. If Mike Posner was looking for understanding or redemption from ‘The Truth’, then he has surely found it.
