The prince of goof and dank memes has surpassed any judgement regarding his professionalism in recent years. Despite his on-stage joke persona and his indescribably weird sense of humour, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter has released two critically-acclaimed albums that have set him up for having consistently sold out shows across the world as well as impressive slots at many festivals. As an artist he manages to produce consistently outstanding music all the while maintaining an apathetic attitude towards the entire business. Even in the face of the news of his latest release This Old Dog being illegally leaked and downloaded, he happily encouraged fans to steal the album if they wanted to.

Despite his blase attitude, This Old Dog actually tackles some issues that are mature and almost present DeMarco as vulnerable. As a whole, the album appears to tackle emotional issues surrounding DeMarco’s relationship with his father, his sister, and his realisation that he is ageing faster that he would have hoped. Musically, the album is far more diverse than earlier releases, but this does not always work in his favour.

‘Baby You’re Out’ and ‘This Old Dog’ open the album in a manner that is so undoubtedly Mac DeMarco and every single note sounds like it’s being played by him and is very familiar to long standing fans but it’s equally far from prior album releases. Comparatively this track is underproduced and somewhat undercooked. It feels like the demo that Mac might have let you see in one of his online inserts; e.g his YouTube teasers that let you see “behind the scenes” of him making albums and the melodies that will eventually make the songs his fans come to love. In the case of this song, it sounds as though Mac has stopped his thought process after coming up with a satisfactory melody. The lack of production in the song does not come across as low-fi or demoey – it simply sounds wrong. The keyboard and muted bass notes are not appropriate to the slacker-rock reverb-heavy sound that a lot of fans might be expecting. Instead they almost feel as though they could be likened to a TV jingle. If these are artistic choices made by DeMarco, it is not apparent throughout. His familiar, oddly soulful crooning doesn’t float easily above the instrumental as usual but rather sounds like he is trying to keep up with a tempo he isn’t entirely sure of.

Despite this, from the onset of This Old Dog DeMarco demonstrates he is still an outstanding songwriter with his lyrics. DeMarco has a lazy poetry to him – it almost sounds as though he is not comfortable with what he’s singing but the lyricism is so good. His lyrics are almost on the edge of stadium-banger sing-a-longs, however they are so elegantly close to spoken word they don’t quite make it.

‘One Another’ hits the nail on the head a lot better. Throughout the verse it’s not the same sounds that you expect to hear but he sounds much more comfortable in what he’s writing, musically, which could be due to the more prominent feature of a guitar. While keyboards have been heavily featured in past releases, DeMarco seems to be basing a lot of songs around them on this album, but the strong 60s-inspired guitar riff that plays throughout seems to give him better footing on this track. It has a ‘Here Comes The Sun’ type vibe but he cleverly subverts this with unexpected note drops and bends.

The track ‘Sister’ gives the strongest suggestion of what DeMarco is trying to achieve with this album. Making an effort to take away a lot of the noisey, stylish guitar sounds and tight hooks, instead DeMarco focuses on heartfelt and personal lyrics. DeMarco uses the simplistic, almost background instrumentals as a base for the messages he wants to pass across, whether they are apologies such as on ‘Still Beating’ or, as with ‘Sister’, a tribute to a family member. While this means that ‘Sister’, and the album as a piece, may not be wholly satisfying for the listener who may be expecting more development in the tracks, it is obvious DeMarco created the album with the intention of expressing emotions rather than commercially pleasing songs.

The three strongest moments in this album all occur in the second half. The tracks, ‘One More Love Song’, ‘On The Level’ and ‘Moonlight On The River’ are the points where DeMarco manages to collide his lyrical ideas with well composed and cohesive instrumentation. They vary in that ‘Moonlight On The River’ is sparse and sprawling, with a close to three minute guitar-based solo rounding off the track while ‘On The Level’ and ‘One More Love Song’ are both succinct and stylishly written.

It is no coincidence that these tracks are some of the best in the track listing. ‘One More Love Song’ is glossily produced and well structured with DeMarco’s trademark guitar sound sitting beautifully on top of a walking bassline. The additional sounds and licks throughout the track are complementary to the song’s overall voice and do not interfere with DeMarco’s barely sung string of knowing comments. The piano lick at the end of each bar stylishly embellishes the track, giving it class and depth and justifying the themes of the album and his maturing as a songwriter.

It is clear that Mac DeMarco is growing up. In this chilled, night-time, folk-bending release, he has gone out of his way to push the envelope lyrically, expressing deep and evocative feelings in a very specific way. Musically, the album is one of his weakest. It has high points where it sounds like a meld of the Twin Peaks soundtrack and Prince as well as low points where it seems like DeMarco is trying to achieve some kind of folk-star status to give his heartfelt songwriting some credibility. While the album may leave fans feeling underwhelmed, lacking his trademark ‘slacker-rock bangers’, it definitely shows the progressive steps a cult-sweetheart can take to becoming a lyricist of serious renown.
Sian Blewitt

Website: mac-demarco.com
Facebook: facebook.com/MacDeMarcoBand
Twitter: twitter.com/MslDeMarco