Salad Days

AlbumApr 01 / 201411 songs, 34m 46s
Jangle Pop Psychedelic Pop Bedroom Pop
Popular Highly Rated

Despite his reputation as something of a hard-partying rock prankster (not many musicians play a guitar customized with an old beer bottle cap), Mac DeMarco, on record at least, has always been a hopeless romantic. And here, on his second album, the Canadian singer/songwriter effectively leans into loverman mode (just see “Let My Baby Stay”). But “Passing Out Pieces” is a particular marvel: Cast in cloudy synths and dark humor, it’s the sound of slacker rock’s clown prince getting serious.

“As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder…” is the opening line from Mac DeMarco’s second full-length LP ‘Salad Days,’ the follow up to 2012’s lauded ‘Mac DeMarco 2.’ Amongst that familiar croon and lilting guitar, that initial line from the title track sets the tone for an LP of a maturing singer/songwriter/producer. Someone strangely self-aware of the positives and negatives of their current situation at the ripe old age of 23. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), ‘Salad Days’ gives the listener a very personal insight into what it’s all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format. The lead single, “Passing Out Pieces,” set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like “…never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me…” Clearly, Salad Days isn’t the same record that breezily gave us “Dreamin,” and “Ode to Viceroy,” but the result of what comes from their success. “Chamber of Reflection,” a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn’t be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac’s widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory. Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon / Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick’s mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that’s completely of right now. “Brother,” a complete future classic, is Mac at his most soulful and easygoing but with that distinct weirdness and bite that can only come from Mr. DeMarco.“Treat Her Better” is rife with “Mac-isms,” heavily chorused slinky lead guitar, swooning vocal melodies, effortless chords that come along only after years of effort, and the other elements seriously lacking in independent music: sentiment and heartfelt sincerity. We’re only at Part 2 and 1/2 (one EP and two LP’s in) into Mac’s career.

8.5 / 10

Mac DeMarco's second full-length isn’t a departure from its predecessor so much as a richer, increasingly assured refinement. At its best, it's an outstanding crystallization of his gifts, the real-talk advice of Jonathan Richman with a far more accessible poetic dreaminess.

A-

A little bit of seriousness worked wonders for indie oddball Mac DeMarco’s debut, 2, which more cohesively developed his infectiously limber jangle while shedding the extraneous Ween-esque tomfoolery. Sophomore effort Salad Days goes one further, bringing a wider variety of old-school styles into the mix and injecting…

5 / 10

8 / 10

An album that's lighter on the palette but in many ways more complex and mature.

7.0 / 10

Just like Future Islands last week, Mac DeMarco is also an artist whose live show becomes impossible to separate from his…

Check out our album review of Artist's Salad Days on Rolling Stone.com.

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With his 2012 debut, 2, Canadian songwriter Mac DeMarco offered the world a look into his dazed but brilliant mind's eye, his songs landing somewhere between a hallucinogenic re-imagination of '70s soft rock, oddball outsider jams, and laid-back indie fare.

9 / 10

With his colourful 2012 debut full-length, 2, and even more colourful persona, Mac DeMarco earned a reputation as the merry prankster of indie rock.

8.5 / 10

If past releases from Canada's indie rock class clown Mac DeMarco proved anything, it's that he's not shy about playing the fool or writing songs—and even entire EPs—about nothing much in particular.

8 / 10

Album review: Mac DeMarco - Salad Days. "An aural testament to the old adage that there’s a fine line between genius and insanity…"

Downbeat sentiments are matched with carefree tunes on this immensely likable album, writes <strong>Killian Fox</strong>

9 / 10

7 / 10

7.0 / 10

Northern Transmissions' Review of Salad Days by Mac DeMarco, the album comes out April 1st on Captured Tracks. Mac DeMarco plays March 31st in Cleveland

<p><strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>: It's hard to tell if Mac DeMarco is a merry prankster or a tortured soul, but either way, his third album is likely to keep winning him new fans</p>

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Album Reviews: Mac DeMarco - Salad Days

7 / 10