Post Malone - Beerbongs & Bentleys

Pitchfork 56

The second album from the crossover star features a few inarguable pop hits, but Post Malone’s singular, dour mood wears thin and grows stale after too long.

The Guardian 40

There are powerful choruses and strong vocals from the chart-topping, face-tattooed rapper, but his guests show him up as a weak lyricist

The documentary film Post Malone Is a Rockstar that accompanies the release of his second album strikes a defiant note. In among the glowing testimonies to his talent and humility from colleagues, old schoolfriends and – an unexpected move, this – a man who doesn’t seem to know who Post Malone is, there is much talk of his resilience to criticism, his bird-flipping attitude to those who “talk shit” about him.

You can see why a thick skin might be an essential character trait for Austin Richard Post. The reviews of his debut, 2016’s Stoney, weren’t so much vicious as dismissive: it was held to be the work of a one-hit wonder who never should have been allowed to make an album in the first place. It went on to sell 2m copies in the US alone, and spawn a succession of hit singles. He has weathered accusations of cultural appropriation and the opprobrium of other rappers, who possibly remember the last time a long-haired white guy with a liking for both rap and down-home American rock got big – Kid Rock – and how well that turned out for everybody.