REVIEW: Mac DeMarco - Salad Days

Part woozy, summer beach psychedelic pop, part contemplative Lennon/McCartney, part soft rock, part house-party balladeer, and 100 percent authentic Mac DeMarco, Salad Days offers a full meal of laid back, idiosyncratic summer tunes. The young Canadian's guitar work is adept, distinctive and mellow, adding a playful foundation for his lyrics.  The latter vary between wry, sincere and even romantic, but the vibe is never too intense to handle.  In terms of songwriting and arrangements, while Mac remains Mac, there is evidence that while engaged in an ambitious touring schedule and following a slave-driving muse, there has been a little time for maturity to seep in.  And with some of the youthful rough edges and prankster urges sanded down, a bit more of the brilliance shows through.

The songs are bright, well-constructed, eminently accessible, and deceptively rich.  A couple of tracks are provided below for your evaluation.  Other favorites of mine include the title track and "Goodbye Weekend".   While Mac himself reportedly isn't fond of "Let Her Go", it also is a very good song.  My favorite times for this album have been sunny weekend mornings, and mild evenings on the patio.  And guests in the latter venue have been uniformly appreciative of this set of songs.  I submit, however, that looking beyond current enjoyment, this is an album that I anticipate wanting to turn to for a very long time.  And unless I'm wrong (for the second or third time in my life, depending on scoring systems), Mac is the kind of guy who will be able to deliver very satisfying music for a long time.





Salad Days is out now via Captured Tracks.

Facebook
Captured Tracks