What you’ll find here is a greater predominance of acoustic guitars compared to previous albums, even a harmonica, and there’s a real acoustic piano in the background on one song (the twangy, reverby electrics that used to be something of a personal signature are for the most part relegated to providing a little unobtrusive decoration). he’s drifting - deliberately, or just by not keeping his eyes open - closer and closer to the so-called middle of the so-called road, a dangerous zone that not many can survive unscathed. #Mac demarco this old dog review macOf course, attempting to assess Mac DeMarco albums according to a metric of comparative “challenging”ness is a basic category mistake, yet nevertheless…. Despite having moments that tip it toward being his most “challenging” album lyrically (if being challenging has anything to do with being serious), This Old Dog might be his least interesting instrumentally and musically. Time to purge those superfluous watery humors by the eyes instead.ī. It might be too soon to say that Mac will never sing about cigarettes again or that the Mac of oozy pitched-down sleaze is gone forever, but they aren’t here at least. This encounter with filial confusion - and not various other forms of “introspection,” like the uncertainty of getting older, weary-before-his-time stuff that have already been a feature of his work ( Salad Days’s title track, among many others) - is what’s thematically distinctive about This Old Dog. The most prominent subject matter of this album is the at-the-time impending death of his mostly absent father (who has since recovered, a possibly awkward - or redemptive - fact that for us must remain external to the matter at hand), and the most noteworthy thing about this is the frank way Mac portrays his ambivalence about it. Here it is relevant, not least because Mac himself makes it so whether he means to or not.īut before we get too much further into that, it’s more useful, for now, to try to make a brief and provisional inventory of themes, sounds, etc.:Ī. But whatever spiny issues surround questions of authenticity and personas - and clichés - there’s still something to be said in individual cases like this, even if the topic in general and as a whole is exhausted and some care has to be exercised in its invocation (and boy does it). It might not be worth going into exactly why - speaking only for myself - I might still be fool enough to not find it wholly undermined by the majority display of nonspecificity on This Old Dog it might even be worth wondering if those two factors aren’t in fact intrinsically related in the context of this album, as if its prevailing superficies of blandness is some kind of extended joke in keeping with Mac’s “fun-loving” persona, “goofy” as he is supposed to be. My three favourite tracks from the album were “Still beating”, “A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothing” and “Watching Him Fade Away” with them showing the old Mac and the new Mac in different ways.Mac has been coasting by on his inimitable charm for a while now, and for whatever reason, it still works on me to some extent - the charm, that is. Starting of the album with “My Old Man” with a heavier theme then we are used to with Mac with him discussing his realisation that he is becoming more like his absent father who struggled with being an alcoholic. I must admit that after my first listen through I was a little underwhelmed with the album however it would be silly to base all of my opinions off of one listen so after a few more I had a greater appreciation for the record as a whole. #Mac demarco this old dog review for mac“This Old Dog” signals a much more mature sound for Mac with improved lyricism and a focus on acoustic guitar and a much heavier use of synthesizers throughout the album. Coming from the land of maple syrup, Mac is one of my favourite artists and already has an arsenal of brilliant indie/folk songs the likes of “Viceroy” and “Blue Boy” so I had high hopes going into the album. Having been released only a few days ago on May 5th I have only had the chance to listen through fully and research up on this album today.
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