Mac Demarco’s third solo release and follow-up to critically acclaimed 2 follows a similar pattern of his previous successes with small easter eggs of maturity buried throughout.
Side one of the album is chock-full of Mac’s signature jizzy chordless dueling guitar work and cute bass lines behind his half talking, half whispering, half singsongy innocent lyrical stories. But, we heard all these songs on the last album. Amongst a plethora of basic, perhaps throwaway tunes that could only have been written on short breaks from vigorous touring or in the van itself, the song Chamber of Reflection embodies everything that is Mac Demarco. The song is characterized by a cheesy casio organ line that is a clear lift from Japanese synth artist Shigeo Sekito’s 1975 song The Word II (google it), providing a clearly humorous tone to the track’s depressing musicality.
Over top the tearjerking background is the gloomiest lyric on the album, “alone again, alone again.” Until recognizing out of place lyrics like “understand that soon you’ll run with better men” and remembering that the song is named after a masonic room of meditation, I thought “is Mac disguising a mockery of cults behind a sappy breakup song?” I hope so.
Although Salad Days fails to bring ‘another side of Demarco to the table, songs like “Goodbye Weekend” and “Jonny’s Odyssey” have a laid back movie-montage quality that sticks in your ears like honey. “Let Her Go” is elevator music, for an elevator that contains all of your best friends enjoying some vodka crans. The music may not be new and exciting, but you’re not going to get off the elevator if you don’t have to.
(Captured Tracks, macdemarco.bandcamp.com) Mischa Decter