Mac DeMarco

Salad Days

Image of Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Record Label
Captured Tracks

About this item

'Salad Days', is the follow up to 2012's lauded 'Mac DeMarco 2' which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), 'Salad Days' gives the listener a very personal insight into what it's all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format.

The lead single, "Passing Out Pieces," set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like "..never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me.." Clearly, this isn't the same record that breezily gave us "Dreamin," and "Ode to Viceroy" but the result of what comes from their success. "Chamber of Reflection," a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn't be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac's widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory.

Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon/Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick's mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that's completely of right now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Having set the tone with his second album ‘2’ back in 2012 with an ode to cheap cigarettes and song after song of whimsical ambivalence, Mac Demarco offers up some fresh delights for us to sink our teeth into. This time there’s a few darker moments from the haunting synthpop masterpiece “Chamber Of Reflection” to a frosty “Passing Out Pieces” revealing the toll touring the world has taken on him. When Demarco isn’t passing out pieces he takes the time to dish out some of his best gap-toothed advice yet with “Let Her Go” and “Treat Her Better” topping it all off with his usual brand of crooning vocals, languid guitars and those ridiculously funky basslines, a definite step up from the last album. Mac takes things a little (only a tiny bit) more seriously this time and pulls off his best record yet!

TRACK LISTING

1. Salad Days
2. Blue Boy
3. Brother
4. Let Her Go
5. Goodbye Weekend
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Passing Out Pieces
8. Treat Her Better
9. Chamber Of Reflection
10. Go Easy
11. Jonny's Odyssey

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