LP Review: Mac DeMarco “Salad Days”

by Irene Lo

If “Passing Out Pieces” wasn’t a sign that something was up, giving Mac DeMarco’s sophomore album, Salad Days, a spin will.

With a reputation for being an unwashed and lovable slacker, this Canadian maverick is writing songs about passing out pieces of himself: “what ma don’t know has taken its toll on me/ it’s all I’ve seen that can’t be wiped clean/ it’s hard to believe what it’s meant of me.” DeMarco has said Salad Days is a negative album, and that it’s about his personal life, and what’s changed since the release of his debut record, 2, is his growing popularity (Facebook Likes do not lie). With a lucrative fan base of admirers that is beginning to freak even DeMarco out, a guy who, in normal circumstances, would be the one freaking other people out with his penchant for snot rockets, DeMarco can’t approach music just as a fun hobby where you get to do weird stuff on stage anymore.

Opening tracks, “Salad Days” and “Blue Boy,” talk about growing up because DeMarco knows that even if the blue boy, who is so worried about what the world thinks about his hair cut, needs to act his age, being an adult is a performance as exhausting as playing the carefree twenty-something year old. The burden of performing for the world is clear when DeMarco sings about how his salad days are gone, and how he’s “always feeling tired, smiling when required.” “Chamber of Reflection” takes the cake though in serving up the cold, hard facts of life – loneliness and moving on from that – with its chilly synths, and constant organ playing in the background.

The eerie groove DeMarco is capable of shows up in “Brother”, a track led by the electric guitar that’s charged with strange sensuality, and the feeling of altered states of consciousness. As a song that rides the wonky wave of alternative music, “Brother” has a dated and warped touch to it, helped in large part by the mumbled, blurred vocal samples that begin and end the song.

As most pop song off Salad Days, “Let Her Go” is not adulterated with sadness or bitterness, but repeats its peachy conclusions without ever changing its easy tone: “tell her that you love her if you really love her. But if your heart ain’t sure, let her go.” “Let Her Go” is also an old song from DeMarco’s Makeout Videotape days, and one that found its way onto the album after Captured Tracks asked for an upbeat number to make the cut. And while DeMarco doesn’t like making songs so sugary like “Let Her Go”, the result isn’t half-baked but fills the craving.

Other love songs like “Let My Baby Stay”, “Treat Her Better”, and “Go Easy” are based on DeMarco’s relationship with Kiera McNally. They are gentle, sparse melodies that show a tender side to the unruffled cool guy.

DeMarco expresses the parts of himself that weren’t in plain sight before in Salad Days, a mixture of sober reflections and good advice that wash things off fresh for a new slate. As Demarco sings in “Goodbye Weekend”, “if you don’t agree with the things that go on in my life, well honey that’s fine just know that you’re wasting your time.”