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#893: Mac DeMarco – My Old Man

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‘Twas a day in my very last semester of university when Mac DeMarco’s old record label uploaded two new songs from his then upcoming album This Old Dog on its official YouTube page. One was the album’s title track, and the other was today’s subject, the album opener, ‘My Old Man’. Having been a fan of Mac’s for almost three years at that point, we’re talking January 2017 here, there wasn’t any better news. But when I first remember hearing them, I kinda felt a bit underwhelmed. That jangly guitar was gone and was replaced by a great presence of the good ol’ acoustic. They were generally a lot calmer and restrained in their delivery. I thought they were just okay. I did however grow fonder of ‘My Old Man’ when the album was released a few months later and I decided to listen to it with proper headphones. Why I had been listening to those initial videos through my phone until is a decision I’m puzzled by, thinking about it now.

Once I used those headphones, I found that the listening experience was almost somewhat the same. Obviously, the track sounded better in the ears. But I heard the same acoustic guitars, Mac’s vocals. That was all well and good. What I wasn’t prepared for was that subtle bass with those pulsing keyboard touches that come in during the chorus. It was those elements that lifted the track to all-star status for me. It changed for me in that instant. And once that happened I was really exciting for the rest of the album that was to come. This was a new Mac DeMarco, and I for one welcomed this new direction he was going in with open arms.

And what is the track about? Something I think that a lot of guys can relate to, looking in the mirror one day and thinking, “Damn. I’m old. I’m starting to look a bit like Dad.” Though in Mac’s case, it’s not the greatest of revelations for him as his relationship with his father was far from great. There are a lot of articles about it online you can read. I’m sure there’s a section about it on his Wiki page too. Though if you’re only slightly interested in it, there is that quite sad video of his dad showing up in a parking lot before one of his shows and leaving soon afterwards. There is the theme of his dad in the song, and in many other tracks within the album for that matter, but I do think that generally the track is about reflecting on physical and mental being after living a particularly hectic lifestyle, something that Mac DeMarco could truly write about from pure experience.

#889: Mac DeMarco – My Kind of Woman

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Upon hearing Salad Days and loving it pretty much instantly when it was first released in March/April 2014, my next objective was to find more music of Mac DeMarco. Luckily 2 had been existing as his first proper album for two years by that point, so I got straight to listening. To this day I’ve held the opinion that 2 isn’t as great as Salad Days. I don’t think it’s as consistent. But it’s highlights are some of DeMarco’s best songs. ‘Cooking Up Something Good’ and ‘Dreamin” are tracks I hold dear to my soul. And then there’s ‘My Kind of Woman’ which admittedly I wasn’t really into those first few times, but with more listens I had to welcome it with open arms.

Like all of his other songs, DeMarco sings with that easygoing tone that so many listeners love ‘im for. So welcoming in its delivery with a relaxing melody, and when that first “Oh, baby” comes in, I mean, you just gotta carry on listening to see how it all unfolds. What happens is a song detailing a person who’s too overcome by how much they like a woman and how she actually reciprocates those feelings and sticks around. It’s a song about this unbelievable wonder when a relationship seems too good to be true. And it’s all provided in two verses and two choruses, something that’s another threaded throughout a lot of Mac’s songs. He hardly ever writes a bridge, but when he writes music like this he doesn’t really have to.

What other things could I talk about… I guess, apart from those guitars with that jangling tone that was a signature of 2/Salad Days era Mac, that organ/keyboard on the left that mimics the lead guitar on the right is quite cool. There’s something that sounds a bit off about it. Like it’s sort of detuning but still managing to stay in key. Kinda gives the track a sort of unsettling feel. Don’t ask me what’s going on in that video though; your guess is as good as mine.

#730: Mac DeMarco – Let Her Go

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I think I’m now older than Mac DeMarco was when he released Salad Days in 2014. I was in my first year of university, 18 but very close to 19, looking for new music to hear and DeMarco appeared with a Best New Music tag on Pitchfork. This is a story I’ve told many times before on this blog. To cut it short, I liked the album pretty much instantly. I still think it’s his best one to this day. This blog was well under way by the time he released the record, so songs like ‘Blue Boy’ and ‘Brother’ I wasn’t able to write about. I did do one for ‘Go Easy’ though, that could be a fun one to read (I don’t know I’ve never really looked back). There will be more to come from this album in the future. But today’s post looks at ‘Let Her Go’, a track that further proved to an eighteen year old me that this was some really good music.

It was the shining guitar tone that grabbed my attention initially when hearing the album for the first time. It was a constant throughout the album, and comes into play especially on this song. ‘Let Her Go’ is the obvious ‘hit’ from Salad Days, carried by a summery ringing descending guitar riff that interplays with the hopping bassline throughout its verses. Despite its upbeat rhythm, DeMarco sings about the hardships of unrequited love. It’s a classic song trope, happy-sounding music with sad lyrics, and I have to say that when carried out well it’s always an add to the music library. I don’t even think back then I realised how sad the song was until I read the lyrics, even though I was ‘singing’ along to them very freely.

Six years on and ‘Let Her Go’ resonates with me just as much as it did back then. I would be lying if I said I haven’t gone through what’s described in the track. Because of that, it probably resonates with me more. I always be a fan of Mac DeMarco, but that Salad Days/Another One era will always be the one I regard as his best.

Mac DeMarco – The Way You’d Love Her “Review”

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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. A new song by Mac DeMarco. Great fan of this guy’s stuff. Been a fan for more than a year now. “Salad Days” is a brilliant listen. I listened to that before I did “2” but that is just as good. (Do prefer the former to it, I’m just gonna say). But right here, you get a bit of flavours from the two.

“The Way You’d Love Her” is the man’s first single from the upcoming “mini-LP” entitled “Another One”, which comes out in early August. It is very much more of the same as what you usually get from him. But the stuff you get is of a very good quality. His style’s just one that works every time. May people be tired of hearing the “same song”? Suuuure. But it depends. If you’re a Mac DeMarco fan, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t like this one.

I did think the music and melody of the verses were a lot better than the chorus. Normally I find that in DeMarco’s songs the verses are only the mere teasers before the greater melody is shown in the latter. But that’s how I felt yesterday. Everything will most likely fall into place.

He is coming to Manchester for the Parklife Festival, and I will see him no matter what it takes. 6-7 June, folks.

My iPod #437: Mac DeMarco – Go Easy

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Salad Days, the second album by Canadian goofball musician man Mac DeMarco, was easily one of my favourite albums of last year. I wrote a separate post dedicated to how much I was enjoying it at the time. If you’re in a hurry and can’t read it, I basically said the melodies were great, every song is memorable, the sound he gets on his guitar is a thing of gleaming beauty, and the album’s overall chill and casual vibe makes for some very easy listening. I certainly became a DeMarco fan thanks to it and I hope to see him, God willing, in Manchester in the summer when he plays at the Parklife Festival.

“Go Easy” is the last ‘song’ on the album, in that it is the last one in which Mac actually sings in before the album’s closing instrumental track “Jonny’s Odyssey”. It carries on the trend established by the nine tracks before it of consisting of a steady beat bathed with DeMarco’s shiny guitar licks and fills. The track also concerns DeMarco’s feelings on the pressures of his girlfriend moving to a new place, a subject which is also referred to in other songs on the album. And again, like almost all of the other tracks, it follows the simple structure of a verse, a chorus, a verse and a few reiterations of the chorus before it comes to a close. May not sound very interesting, but you have to hear it order to believe for yourself. Salad Days is too good to miss out on.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.