Three years ago on this day, Mac DeMarco released ‘All of Our Yesterdays’ – the second single from what was his forthcoming fourth album Here Comes the Cowboy. That’s a nice one, was an instant download for me. Would have its own post had it not been released six years after the blog. But just under a month before came the album’s first single, ‘Nobody’, a slow burner reminiscent of his work on This Old Dog that was also accompanied by its somewhat unsettling video featuring DeMarco heavily doused in make-up to resemble a reptilian-like creature.

The decision to do that was very much in line with the song’s theme. Mac describes himself as a creature put on display for people to entertain while feeling sad inside and wishing he could go back to the way things were before, when he wasn’t known as the indie jester-type character that people seen him as up until then. The music is light and forlorn, carried by this lightly plucked guitars – both acoustic and electric – and a droning keyboard that changes notes in accordance with the chord progressions throughout. That is one lonely keyboard, but its use really ties everything together. DeMarco delivers his vocal with the usual croon, but there’s a sigh-like quality to it that makes it all the more comforting.

The sentiment of feeling like an exhibition put out for display was reflected in the other videos DeMarco made during the ‘Cowboy’ era. That whole period was marked by a few other actions of his that got people talkin’. He deactivated his social media accounts. He prevented the public from commenting on and liking/disliking his videos on YouTube. All of this really left people wondering if he was okay for a while. Then the album came out and left a majority of fans disappointed. I think time’s been kinder to it. But it’s been the longest period of time between a Mac release since Rock and Roll Night Club way back when. Hopefully that’s because he runs his own label and so feels no pressure to work on music for now, rather than he not wanting to do music at all.