Review: Mac Demarco - Salad Days
[Captured Tracks; 2014]
Rating: 6.5/10
By Zack Baker, Editorial Director
Key Tracks: “Passing Out Pieces,” “Let Her Go”
Progression as an artist is vital, and there are hundreds of albums designed purely to showcase growth and change. Simply refining a sound into something stronger can also yield amazing results; there’s something to be said for maintaining a style and truly mastering it. But a strange issue crops up when an artist clearly wants to change, but just can’t let go of their old style enough for it to matter.
Those albums end up sounding disjointed, awkward and described as “promising.” That curse has befallen Canadian weirdo-rock sensation Mac DeMarco’s latest. Salad Days comes hot off the heels of the critically-lauded 2 and a hefty tour in support of it.
DeMarco’s worn down, and crafted this album in the aftershock stage of his critical explosion. He’s become an overnight rock star (at least within the little circle we call “indie rock”) and the effect the “fame” has had on him can be heard in these songs. The music more frequently delves into more somber tones, where 2 was satisfied making a meth-chef father figure sound like a fairy-tale upbringing with “Cooking Up Something Good.”
2 was constantly sporting a wry smile, with its biggest hit coming in the form of a love song...to a cigarette brand. With Salad Days, DeMarco’s begun to drop the goofball act a little bit and keep his excellent storytelling with a touch more honesty sprinkled throughout.
A prime example of this is “Passing Out Pieces,” an upbeat standout that focuses on the stresses of bearing one’s soul to an audience and essentially sharing an entire life with whoever’s listening. DeMarco croons “Passing out pieces of me / Don’t you know nothing comes free / What Mom don’t know has taken its toll on me” to the listener over an intense wall of bubbling synths and guitar lines. It’s the first direct explanation the listener gets to the more downtrodden demeanor of Salad Days, and makes for a fantastic listen to boot.
The biggest issue with this album is its inability to completely avoid the goofiness DeMarco made a name. Songs such as the title track and “Go Easy” sport instrumentals that could have easily been pulled from the leftovers of 2, but still hit on the more morose themes of this album. The juxtaposition feels strange and leaves the songs feeling out of place in the track listing.
DeMarco does manage to sober things up a bit to complement the sad topics of many songs throughout the album’s middle portion. “Let Her Go” is the first spot where he really nails it, maintaining the same style as his older stuff, but bringing it to a more appropriate level. The guitars are still noodling and soaked in as many effects as DeMarco can daisy chain together, but it’s not so overpowering that it feels odd when he belts out a gentle legato “go” every chorus.
Salad Days isn’t bad. It’s just an album of transition: from the gap-toothed DeMarco we met a few years back to the more authentic, honest songwriter he’s become. DeMarco just hasn’t quite figured out how to balance the two here.
