Austin (album)

On May 15, 2023, Malone posted a video on Instagram to announce the album, which is titled after his real first name.[4][5] The message hinted at a different artistic approach, possibly intensifying the sound of his fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache (2022).[6] Malone cited the Bandcamp album Unwanted Music by Lex as the inspiration behind the album. Malone revealed that he played the guitar on every single song on the album, calling the creation process a "fun experience".[7] He described the outcome as the "most challenging and rewarding music" he had ever made, which was a product of constantly making himself work to make it.[8] That same day, Malone also announced a summer North American tour called the If Ya'll Weren't Here, I'd Be Crying Tour to accompany the release of the album, which later became a world tour that started on July 8 and will end on December 3.[9]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	66/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[15]
Clash	7/10[16]
NME	[17]
Pitchfork	5.5/10[1]
Slant Magazine	[18]

Austin received a score of 66 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on ten critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.[14] Erica Campbell of NME wrote that Malone's "shift from trap beats and hip-hop delivery to purer pop suites [sic] [him] well, proving that slowing down can be a creative advantage, especially when you're heading in the right direction",[17] while Clash's Robin Murray described Austin as "an album that dares to buck trends, and at its best can be genuinely moving".[16]

Rolling Stone's Clayton Purdom wrote that "even if Austin is Post's guitar record, it's not his rock record", and found that "plenty of it works" even if "the immense self-loathing with which the record introduces itself finds no clear resolution by the end, despite many allusions on otherwise-peppy songs".[19] Paul Attard of Slant Magazine commented that "little on the album could be regarded as hip-hop-oriented" as its tracks "are primarily structured around stadium-sized pop hooks", which he found "all follow the same overly simplistic pop structure".[18] Writing for Pitchfork, Brad Shoup felt that Austin "is Post at his strongest: audaciously raiding the entire pop toolkit" and "even after forsaking Los Angeles for Utah, his life remains a movie: loaded with state-of-the-industry pyrotechnics, bristling with guns, and littered with synergistic product tie-ins", which makes the album "in directorial terms, a one-for-me situation: a passion project secured with almost a decade at the summit of pop-rap as collateral".[1] Riff magazine wrote that Austin was "influenced by ’80s and ’90s alternative rock," which tended to "slow down the middle of the album."[3]

In the United States, Austin debuted at number two on Billboard 200 chart, earning 113,000 album-equivalent units (including 34,000 in pure album sales) in its first week. This became Malone's fifth top-five album on the chart after all his previous studio albums reached the top five. The album also accumulated a total of 101.14 million on-demand streams of the album's songs.[20]

All tracks produced by Post Malone, Andrew Watt, and Louis Bell, except where noted.

Musicians

Technical

• Mike Bozzi – mastering
• Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
• Marco Sonzini – engineering (1–4, 6, 8–11, 14–18)
• Paul Lamalfa – engineering (1–4, 6, 8–11, 14–18)
• Louis Bell – engineering (4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 15)
• Jed Jones – engineering (13, 15), engineering assistance (2, 3, 6, 8, 9)
• Joe Dougherty – engineering assistance (1, 2, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18)
• Braden Bursteen – engineering assistance (2, 4, 15)
• Tommy Turner – engineering assistance (2, 4, 15)
• Kelsey Porter – engineering assistance (14, 17, 18)
• Marc VanGool - Guitar Technician, Studio Technician