Post Malone has posted a release date for his long-promised new album: “Twelve Carat Toothache” will be out June 3, he announced in a social media message that contained little else besides a blurry red image and a link to pre-save the album on streaming services.
The album will mark the performer’s first on the Mercury Records label, the revival of which was announced by Republic Records earlier in April. Tyler Arnold, the newly installed president of Mercury, signed and developed Post Malone at Republic, where he had been executive VP of A&R.
Twelve Carat Toothache. June 3rd https://t.co/Hk4TwTLtJX
— twelve carat toothache (@PostMalone) April 27, 2022
Post Malone had revealed the title of the album in January, in a Billboard cover story meant to help the launch the record that made some fans believe it was coming sooner than it ultimately did. He had spoken of an album-in-progress as far back as April 2020.
A single teasing the album, “One Right Now,” a collaboration with the Weeknd, was released in November. It debuted and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
No track listing has been released for the album, but the artist has already declared that it will clock in at 45 minutes, modest by the standards of today’s hip-hop-based records. In the Billboard story, he indicated that he believes other artists pad out their releases with interludes or unnecessary songs just to bolster their streaming numbers, which count on a per-track basis.
“Trying to shove 20 to 25 songs, it doesn’t work,” he said at the time. “Talking to the label [it’s like], ‘Oh, if you have less songs, you’re not going to stream as much,’ but the whole thing is that you don’t want to compromise your art and your gut vibe on anything. I’ve made a lot of compromises, especially musically, but now I don’t feel like I want to anymore. I don’t need a No. 1; that doesn’t matter to me no more, and at a point, it did.”
Whether it matters to him or not, “Twelve Carat Toothache” is likely to debut at No. 1 and stay there a while, barring any unexpected simultaneous release by an even bigger superstar, of which there are few in pop right now. It’s his first since the 2019 blockbuster “Hollywood’s Bleeding.”
The performer described the new album as speaking to “how I’m feeling at the moment: the ups and downs and the disarray and the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream.”
Earlier in the life of the project, there had appeared to be some stress lines between the artist and Republic, with indications from his camp that he was ready to put the album out long before the record company was. In early January, manager Dre London raised eyebrows in the music industry and among fans by posting the social media message: “Our sync & energy always on a Insane level!! Album has been done!! We Ready!! But seems [Republic and Universal Music Group] isn’t!” He added a shrug emoji. “Posty fans no more need to press me anymore we did our part!! Now it’s time for the label to get the business right before we drop BIG Album! Hit them up! We been ready like u are!” None of the parties involved have spoken further publicly about any stalemate.
With the new/old Mercury imprint (the original label of that name began in 1945), which is essentially an extension of Republic, Arnold is joined in heading the labelby Ben Adelson, the new general manager. Both continue to report to Republic’s Monte and Avery Lipman. James Bay and Lord Huron are among the artists joining Post Malone in moving over to Mercury.
