Mac DeMarco’s ‘2′ is one of the most chilled albums I have. It sounds like he put minimal effort into it but still ended up with a pretty good record. Obviously, he put in the effort as it was his debut record but I’m just talking about the overall feel. This is the first DeMarco album I’ve bought though so maybe I’m wrong.
ANYWAY, I enjoy this one. It’s a little hard to figure out and review. There’s no bad song on it but his lyrics are sometimes predictable. The storytelling is decent enough to keep you focused, and his topics are a little funny. There’s one song ‘Ode To Viceroy’,which is about his love for a brand of cigarette. A love story about a cigarette. So ya, pretty laid back on the whole story approach.
‘My Kind Of Woman’, ‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’ and ‘Cooking Up Something Good’ are solid tracks with a little Jack Johnson vibe to them. With ‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’ and ‘Dreaming’ DeMarco utilizes the electric guitar really well which sort of makes them stand out in the album, with a solo thrown in at the deep end of ‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’. ‘Robson Girl’ is solid too and DeMacro shows his mad guitar skills by shredding the shite out of it in the albums most wild minute. ‘Annie’ is also a good example of his ability to get you bopping around. There’s actually several instances of this throughout the album which makes it fun to listen to. You can tell he’s a little on the wild side through some of the songs. The stand out track is ‘Still Together’, where DeMarco changes his voice completely to sing the chorus in baritone and pulls is off brilliantly because it makes it sound like a genuine love song. Other songs such as ‘Boe Zaah’ and ‘Sherrill’ are also very enjoyable.
I’m happy to listen to this one over and over because it’s very laid back and very cool, and I’ll get more of DeMarco’s albums no doubt. It’s absolutely worth picking up if you’ve been thinking about giving him a go or thinking of adding jangle pop to your collection of genres.
G.M
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