At the end of our last episode we talked about the unsettling conclusion to

swimming's fourth track perfecto. It's here that Mac Miller seems to personify his

relationship with drugs. He describes getting into a car driven by a woman, the metaphor being he's taking a trip, a drug trip, one that makes him feel put back together.

Bare feet running late, her car started even though the only thing that she driving a hard bargain more

important is I'm kind of sort of out the door but she put me back together when I'm

out of order perfect. Max's declaration of perfect is both sincere and ironic.

He feels perfect while high but we know he knows this solution is far from perfect long term.

The chords played beneath Mac mirrors this

dualism. When he says perfect, we get perfect pleasant harmony. But rather than ending with

perfection, a dissonant chord follows, growing more and more intense until the song ends

ominously unresolved.

Perfect. This harshness is created by an F sharp in the bass and an F in the treble.

Musically there's a few ways we could resolve this tension if we wanted and one of them would be by playing a g chord of some kind as this would allow the F sharp to resolve up to a G, the closest

neighboring note next to it. This G chord resolves the tension. And

guess what chord Swimming's next song begins with?

The opening moments of self-care resolve the cliffhanger ending of Perfecto.

And as we'll find out in today's episode, this is just one of many connections that bond these

two parallel songs together.

Indeed, at the end of Perfecto, Mac Miller got into the car to take a trip, and in self-care, we find out where he goes.

From Spotify, I'm Cole Kushna and this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short

digestible episodes.

Today we continue our serialized examination of Mack Miller swimming with its fifth track self-care. Oh, Self-Care is split into two large parts, each with different riders and producers.

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