Following an incredible beginning of the summer for music releases, not many people expected as many high-caliber releases in August as in June and July. However, August proved us all wrong with a wide variety of amazing songs.

Mac Miller – “Swimming” (Explicit)

At the beginning of August, old school hip-hop artist Mac Miller released “Swimming.” This album is his first since 2016, when he released “The Divine Feminine.” The Pittsburgh native has been making music since 2010 and has come a long way with his style.

With this newest release, Miller has tapped into his emotional side with a major theme of the album being about self-love. Coincidently, Miller recently ended a long-term relationship with widely popular pop star Ariana Grande. The sad theme of this album could be due to this breakup.

Unlike many of his older songs and albums, where the fast-paced beat and lyrics has audiences energized, “Swimming” has a much more melancholy feel. While the style of this album is very different than past Mac Miller albums, this album still retains many of the things that make his music so good. Miller’s distinctive voice with introspective lyrics and incomparable lyrical flow will attract both old fans and new ones.

The intro song, “Come Back To Earth,” doesn’t highlight the rap skills of Miller as much as it does his singing ability. This song along with “Self Care” features a very blue and mellow tone. However, other songs on the album “What’s The Use” and “Ladders” utilize a much more cheerful tempo with more lively lyrics and delivery.

With a different overall tone than his previous releases, Mac Miller once again delivers a great album which will leave listeners eager for another.

Twenty-one Pilots – New singles

Throughout the end of July and into the beginning of August, genre-blending duo Twenty One Pilots released four singles: “Jumpsuit,” “Levitate,” “My Blood,” and “Nico And The Niners.” The drummer-lyricist duo out of Columbus, Ohio, has been on hiatus since the release of their Grammy award-winning album “Blurryface.” These singles are the pre-released songs off the band’s newest album titled “TRENCH” which has a release date of Oct. 5 of this year.

It is hard to restrict Twenty One Pilots to just one genre as they combine many different influences — rap, pop, electronic, and rock. These four releases prove this point further as the earliest release, “Jumpsuit,” starts off with a rock-esque, heavy, over-driven guitar intro before backing off for the first verse.

One of the other releases, “Nico And The Niners” is completely different than “Jumpsuit” as this single leans more on the pop side of the spectrum with a basic background beat with a catchy chorus and lyrics. 

The most recent release, “Levitate,” mixes rock and rap. Using the talent of Josh Dun on the drums with rapped lyrics and a catchy, albeit repetitive, background beat, Twenty One Pilots successfully blends these two genres together.

With a three-year gap between albums and the great job that the band has done with these singles, their newest album surely has a chance the blow the world away.

Aminé – “ONEPOINTFIVE” (explicit)

On Aug. 15, Rap artist Aminé released his second ever album with “ONEPOINTFIVE.” Up until this album, the rapper out of Portland, Ore. was always seen as a one hit wonder due to the popularity of his song off his first album, “Caroline.” Though, with this newest album, Aminé shows us all that this could not be further from the truth.

This album continues the style from his first album with fun, different beats, a crowd-appealing chorus, and eloquent lyrics and lyrical flow from Aminé. While there are many similarities to his earlier music, he changes it up in this newest album in a couple of different ways. One way is that Aminé infuses a lot more emotion into both his rapping as well as his lyrics.

In the intro song, “DR. WHOEVER,” he raps about his struggles in life. Though it isn’t the catchiest song, it shows a dramatic change in the style of his music. The other way that he changes it up in this album is using a more meaningful tone in his music. With Aminé’s earlier music almost all of the songs had a happy and positive feel to them. With the song “CHINGY,” he utilizes a more serious tone which is very contrasting to his earlier works and is very similar to the trap style of rap music.

Amine changes things up and experiments in this album, and it has worked out greatly. Though he mixed it up a little, he still uses a similar style in the majority of the songs that many fans fell in love with when he released “Caroline.” The songs “TOGETHER,” “CANTU,” and “BLACKJACK” all have a really energetic beat with memorable choruses and fantastic lyrics.

With many people labeling Aminé as a one hit wonder for over a year, “ONEPOINTFIVE” proves them wrong with one of the best hip-hop album releases of the year.

Death Cab for Cutie – “Thank You for Today”

On Aug. 17, longtime indie band Death Cab For Cutie released their newest album, “Thank You for Today.” After their debut in 1998, the group out of Bellingham, Wash., rose to become one of the most popular indie bands of the 2000’s and have continued releasing projects every couple of years since then.

In their newest album, the band continues to use what has worked for them in the past. Combining beautiful lyrics with lovely melodies, Death Cab For Cutie creates yet another memorable album.

The song “Northern Lights” is a great example for the music that the band has perfected over the last decade. The song features a repetitive and memorable guitar riff with piano and drums in the background, all behind the unique vocals of Ben Gibbard.

This song along with the “I Dreamt We Spoke Again” which uses a more slow, trippy melody with spaced out lyrics make this album one that should not be overlooked for indie fans.

Troye Sivan – “Animal”

At the beginning of August, singer Troye Sivan released his newest single, “Animal.” The release of this single marks the fifth single of 2018 and his sixth since he dropped his widely popular album “Blue Neighbourhood.”

Sivan’s music is different in the fact that he seems to combine the vocal side of R&B with the background melodies of slowly paced dance music. In “Animal,” the song starts with Sivan displaying his vocal talent while eventually being taken over by an electronic beat for the chorus. With the release of this song, Sivan has blessed us with yet another single and prepares us for hopefully another great album.

From top to bottom this month of music was fantastic, and it had to be in order to get us through the end of summer and the beginning of school. Hopefully, the coming months will have as many strong releases as this August.