‘Dissect’ Season 9 to Focus on Mac Miller’s ‘Swimming’ and ‘Circles’

A new season of Spotify’s Dissect is upon us, meaning fellow music-obsessed deep-divers can look forward to another round of scholarly ponderings on an artist whose work will undeniably endure.

This season, as announced in the special reveal clip up top from artist Jayce Hall, host and creator Cole Cuchna will present an in-depth exploration of the acclaimed Mac Miller albums Swimming and Circles.

“Two years in the making, it was an album that would stay true to the video central image of a man entrenched in his own psyche—observing, searching, scrutinizing,” Cuchna says. “It was an album that communicates a universal notion of seeking peace amidst the unrelenting currents of emotions. An album whose central symbol is water. The replenishing source of life that can just as easily pull you under. It was Mac Miller’s Swimming.”

The album ultimately marked the last to be released during Miller’s life, as the Pittsburgh-born artist died in September of 2018 at the age of 26. Swimming, Cuchna notes, saw Miller creatively channeling the “ephemeral, ever-changing experience of life” while simultaneously finding faith in our collective ability to “choose awareness and survive.” While tracks like “Self Care” explored the “inherent contradictions” of our efforts to wrestle with the human condition, others felt more like an oscillation between—as Cuchna says—“dismay and joy.”

The first episode of Dissect Season 9 debuts exclusively on Spotify this Tuesday.

Dissect has previously gone deep on classics from Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Frank Ocean, and more. The most recent season focused on Kanye West’s 2013 zeitgeist-wheelie-popper Yeezus.