This Unruly Mess I’ve Made by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

This Unruly Mess I've Made, the second and last album from Seattle duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, came out on February 26, 2016, through Macklemore LLC and the Alternative Distribution Alliance. Following The Heist, the record that won them their first Grammys, was never going to be easy, and rather than run the same victory lap they went looking for arguments. Lewis produced, and Macklemore spends much of the record picking at fame, the glare of the tabloids and white privilege.

That last subject gets the full treatment on "White Privilege II", a promotional single featuring Jamila Woods, while the official singles, "Downtown" and "Dance Off", pull toward the party. It's a lopsided record, earnest to a fault in places and gleefully silly in others, and it turned out to be the duo's final word: in June 2017 Macklemore announced they were on indefinite hiatus.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.