Mac DeMarco is a man of many antics. His 2012 debut, Rock and Roll Night Club, introduced him as a mildly ambiguous, moderately confusing and massively entertaining Canadian indie rocker. This theme rolled over onto sophomore release, 2, but with a stronger hint of playfulness and more apparent songwriting skills. After the success of his first two records, however, DeMarco still holds as a goofy, uncomfortable non-artist artist who lives (and records) in a shoebox apartment in Brooklyn and chain smokes cigarettes for vastly longer periods of time than you’ll ever hear him speak.
His sound is unique in the way in which he throws back to early Velvet Underground, late Kinks, and any Bowie in between to perfectly correlate to today’s indie rock with an edge that is created by his nonchalant aura and buzzed delivery.
On his newest work, Salad Days, DeMarco reflects on fleeting youth and fighting adulthood (“As I’m getting older / Chip up on my shoulder / Rolling through life / To roll over and die”), which intensifies his man-boy persona in a somehow mature manner by getting rid of the silly add-ins such as Rocky Horror pantomimes of Rock and Roll Night Club and strange, meaningless dialogues of 2. Salad Days is perfectly focused on the music; DeMarco’s honest lyrics are spot on and his self-proclaimed “jizz jazz” guitar stylings complement every word.
The album ranges from light, summery tunes (“Blue Boy,” “Let Her Go,” “Go Easy”) to darker, conflicting tracks (“Salad Days,” “Brother”) to tripped out psychedelic pieces (“Goodbye Weekend,” “Chamber of Reflection”) to sincere love songs that contradict DeMarco’s sleazy and slightly creepy character (“Let My Baby Stay,” “Treat Her Better”). “Passing Out Pieces” is a masterpiece in its own, combining all of the artist’s elements into an old-fashioned sounding track complete with one of DeMarco’s most defined vocals of the album.
The closing track, “Jonny’s Odyssey,” is an introspective instrumental piece and turns out to be one of the coolest tracks on Salad Days. The tune switches back and forth from happy, sunshine rock guitar licks to Magical Mystery Tour-esque repetitive psychedelic synthetics to create a juxtaposition in the simplest form and a mesmerizing end to a hypnotic album.
Salad Days