mac demarco

I prefer his earlier stuff, think it's been diminishing returns since 2 which is prob my favourite thing he's done. Listening to the new one now, I'll give my thrilling opinion when I'm done

Part of his fame is obviously for extra musical reasons (he has charismatic star quality)

But that's hardly uncommon in popular music

My verdict: seems much of a muchness to me. Obv the opening track and choose choo are throwaway but other than that I dont think it's some huge outlier. I do think it confirms I am not really into his newer stuff and can probably cease to pay much attention to him

He lost me after Salad Days. Minus the heavy sleaze I don't find him all that compelling.

A lot of my dismissal of Mac isnt exactly his fault -- it's just that letting YouTube know that, once, you looked up "mac demarco live" means you forever get every innately possible bit of channelings straight into your recommended videos, forever. It's like the algorithm has a particular penchant for bands that encourage seeming fanaticism, and think they're doing the right thing in assuming you probably also fit the bill.


I loathe him just on basis of how much sheer content and editorial is given to him. Undeserving to an extreme. Seems like a fun guy to go camping with. Our American idol.

He's Canadian

well i'm not going camping in canada so

Seems like a fun guy to go camping with.

So otm.

he truly is A. S. M. R. Cale on this new one

"nobody" is one of his best songs & one of my favorites of the year

the rest of the album doesn't really stick sadly even tho it's very well produced & nice to listen to. i don't think it's a question of being half assed...

'nobody' is beautiful

I wish this troubled teen would just apply himself

/thread

for real tho mac worked a lot of hard graft shitty jobs before he ended up playing music for a living.

Brando was a ditch digger

but he became The Duke in His Domain

and mac is chewing spaghetti in japan on this album

choo choo!

Came back to Here comes the cowboy the other day (was looking for slow songs with rock beats to teach primary school kids, forgive me world) and damn, I actually like this the most of all his stuff? Real soothing, sounds great, overall a fan of most of the songs. Bummed he started the album with that horrible track because its all pretty great from there. The dudes at his best when he is “normal”, not bouncing of the walls crazy imo

my fav is probably This Old Dog but yeah, Cowboy has a lot of similar appeal

I think he was always good at writing little ideas, feel like he's an underrated songwriter (as in people often sell him as vibey which yes he's also)

"Nobody" is a highlight for me

haha Five Easy Hot Dogs

he's a funny guy

enjoyable if slight instrumental album, miss the vocals

wonder if it will work well on some playlists, like instrumental hip hop study music

#423 in the world on Spotify, wonder if any other self-released indie artist is doing better (but then some of his biggest hits are released through indie label Captured Tracks)

Gualala 2 paid for Chrono Trigger ost rights I assume.

It’s pretty much a cover of this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ao-KkI--sc

His version would probably make a great sample btw

was not familiar with that great tune, cool!

Gualala 2 paid for Chrono Trigger ost rights I assume.

would not assume this given his history of uncredited interpolations like this - see "chamber of reflection"

What? Chamber of reflection doesn’t give credit to Shigeo Shekito?

i mean maybe there's a behind the scenes deal there but it was never credited anywhere, in liner notes or publishing, though he has acknowledged it

mac was SO big amongst my generation! bigger than any chart record shows.
this thread is a great record of what happened.
he seemed to get less interesting with each release and he didn't learn how to vary things and people really did stop caring.
I think i'd still like 2 if I listened to it now but there is now something very naff about mac.

damn, 199 track "album" up today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQZVg4nTfk
20200817 Proud True Toyota

interesting move

there's some good stuff in there

Wow. The last two albums finally made me a fan, though admittedly in more of a "lo-fi chill beats to study to" manner. Seems like he's going the Sam Gendel route, ie 'fuck getting on a playlist, I'll be your whole playlist.'

"lo-fi chill beats to study to" is up there for my most hated trend in modern music. That said, love the last two albums as well. He's so much better without the spectacle and "wow whacky" personality breathing into it all, much better when he's just producing something relaxing and melancholy to listen to. Bossa Nova feel to a lot of his recent stuff. Listened to 30 seconds of this new one so far, but know from that 30 seconds i am going to enjoy biting into this

wow. i didn't think there was anything that could get me re-interested, but this will do it!

He's so much better without the spectacle and "wow whacky" personality breathing into it all

otm

good interview here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dn1fgVQIbM

Good interview. I like older 30’s Mac. Same charisma, subdued vanity/whacko. Not just talking about the character, but it’s reflected in the music too. Review scores have gone down as he has got older, but fof me I think he’s got better with age

"This Old Dog" is the only thing I really like. The stuff after put me to sleep. But maybe I should give it another go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8IVVV7ERo

mac's vocals are really nice on this throwaway gem but perhaps the best part is ryan paris' recollection of the session:

Mac came in my summer house in the evening. We have decided before it comes that we wanted to write a song together. And I was dreaming to write this song in the way like John Lennon & Paul McCartney did together in the ’60s.

So the next day we woke up, I went to make some swimming, Mac did some exercises than we had Italian coffee and we went in the studio.

I had very early in the morning the idea for the title of the song: “Paradise.”

But I was thinking that it was too simple for Mac so I just said to Mac : “What do you think about “Juicy Paradise?”

Mac started right away to compose music with a Fender Telecaster thinking about “Juicy Paradise.”

Than we went in the garden and I started to think that I wanted that he had to feel free and not blocked in a title that I made.

But Mac was really happy about this way of working.

Then we came back in the studio and something changed.

Mac started to play the guitar as Mac DeMarco style, and I started to improvise something with the voice.

What I was singing and also what he also was singing remembered me the English group Simply Red.

So, I said: “What do you think about the title “Simply Paradise?”

Yeahhhh, the title we loved right away.

So I start to sing in my Italian spaghetti English singing nice melodies but words without sense.

And I was very happy that Mac was writing the funny with no sense phrases and he putted in nice English and he was also singing and we used some of my singing and some of his singing. And than came the idea to make like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney in the song “The Girl Is Mine.” There we really started to have big fun and we finished the song in few hours. It was really fun, ahahahah.

Love to see a couple dorks having fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMOYPwg6UFw

another Paris collab, quite enjoyable, Ryan's age makes it kinda... moving?

Yeah both these songs have been great 👍

Playing all of his current Guitar this morning after seeing it as Blackbird Spyplane’s #1 album of 2025 and possibly never having heard him before. Good mellow stuff!

I've been enjoying it a lot too.

sounding pretty good, thanks!