Post Malone may be four albums into his career, but his latest, Twelve Carat Toothache, is the first that's truly written from the perspective of the man behind the superstar alias: Austin Richard Post.

His first full-length work in three years, Twelve Carat Toothache was recorded after Post moved from California to Utah, resulting in a different lyrical path than his previous albums — one that sees Post Malone more vulnerable than ever before.

Yet, the new introspective look from Post Malone still follows the singer's formula of recruiting heavyweight guests. Twelve Carat Toothache sees appearances from genre-bending stars The Weeknd and Doja Cat, new pop phenom The Kid LAROI, rappers Roddy Ricch and Gunna, and one of Post's musical heroes, indie-folk group Fleet Foxes. 

Here are five key details to know about Post's star-studded — but highly confessional — new album.

'Twelve Carat Toothache' Is The Sound Of Passion Reigniting

After dropping 2019's Hollywood's Bleeding, Post relocated from Los Angeles to Utah to get away from the music business and city's fast pace. The change helped the anxiety that has been brewing inside him since junior high. However, the move didn't initially catapult him into a new phase of creative productivity.

"For the longest time, I lost my passion for making music," Post told Jimmy Fallon in May. "I lost that drive. But then, there was just one moment that snapped… and I said, 'This is why I'm here. And this is what I want to do, this is what I was meant to do,' [which is] to make, uh, medium music for people to enjoy," he laughed.

Despite the super-personal themes of Twelve Carat Toothache, you can hear the passion that Post regained in his voice and the album's sounds. "Cooped Up" with Roddy Ricch brings the spirit of the party back after staying at home for the last few years, and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" recalls his gift for simple, yet memorable hooks like his supernova 2018 hit "Rockstar."

He's Not Chasing His Next Hit

Five of the Hollywood's Bleeding singles landed in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, including two No. 1s. But as he put together Twelve Carat Toothache, Post didn’t feel the need to repeat that level of success.

"I've made a lot of compromises, especially musically, but now I don't feel like I want to anymore," he told Billboard. "I don't need a No. 1; that doesn't matter to me no more, and at a point, it did."

The album's first single, The Weekend-featuring "One Right Now," is arguably the most radio-friendly track — proven by its No. 6 peak on the Hot 100 — but the majority of the album's melodies aren't so straightforward. Perhaps that was intentional to help put the album's sensitive lyrics at the forefront, like the stripped-back "Lemon Tree" that sees Post exploring extreme loneliness ("Isolation is not good for me/Isolation, I don't want to/Sit on a lemon tree").

Duality Is An Important Theme On The Album

Post looks at various contrasts in Twelve Carat Toothache, starting with the butterfly and knife on the cover art — representing the beauty of pure art and the cutting nature of the music business. As he breaks free from making music that he may have felt pressured to make, Post's lyrical content still explores what it's like to be in both places.

The album also features a themed pair of songs that explore opposite emotions of love back to back: The Doja Cat collab "I Like You (A Happier Song)" followed by "I Cannot Be (A Sadder Song)," which features Gunna.

Alcohol Inspired Much Of The Album — But Differently Than You'd Think

Much of Twelve Carat Toothache touches on his mixed feelings about alcohol, most plainly on "Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol," a collaboration with Fleet Foxes. It serves as another representation of duality: "You're the reason why I got my ass kicked/But you're the only way to drown my sadness," he wails on the chorus. 

Post talks about booze with self-deprecating humor on "Euthanasia," though it's still a fairly raw depiction of his relationship with going out. "Behold, a sober moment/ Too short, and far between," he sings on the second verse. "I should crack one open/ To celebrate bein' clean."

Psychedelics Helped His Songwriting Process

The album sounds cohesive as a whole, and that may be due in part to the fact that a lot of the core sounds were made in one go. After recording his other albums in the same small Hollywood studio, Post rented a house on the Pacific Coast to make Twelve Carat Toothache, he told Zane Lowe in an interview for Apple Music.

He revealed that spending time by the ocean — paired with some psilocybin-rich mushrooms, which he told Lowe removed his fears about creating music that reflected himself more — spawned a particularly productive session one night.

"It was 12 hours in Malibu that I sat by myself in this dark room with my laptop and just made beats," he said. "For 12 hours, did a bunch of shrooms, made beats and was like, 'Whoa, this is awesome!' That was the turning point and the album from there just wrote itself."

Combining that spark of inspiration with the ability to fully trust his intuition and let his true self shine through, Twelve Carat Toothache marks an audible step forward in Post Malone's artistic maturation.

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