Beneath the gap-toothed smile and goofy demeanor lies an emotional enigma known as Mac DeMarco. Today marks the release of his new album, Another One. Listen to it above via Spotify and Captured Tracks.
Like his acclaimed 2014 album, Salad Days, Another One is molded by juxtaposition. The album alternates between the light, spacey guitars that fans of DeMarco have come to love, and heavy, melancholic lyrics. While the New York City-based DeMarco doesn't take a whole lot of musical risks on the album, he doesn't need to. Lazy love songs have always been a strong suit of his, and lazy love songs are aplenty on Another One.
While Salad Days was DeMarco's most ambitious effort, blending fears about his maturation, love, and loneliness, the focus of Another One is more singularly visceral. "It's all love songs all the time," DeMarco recently told NPR, "It's just kind of like every angle of how somebody might feel if they're having strange feelings in their chest." DeMarco yearns for "her" on the conditionally fantastical "The Way You'd Love Her," sings with a subdued, jaded anger about "her" on "A Heart Like Hers," and finally accepts "her" leaving on the heart-wrenching "Without Me."
DeMarco has found a winning formula in the contrasting nature of his spacey, ethereal musical style and surprisingly deep, often woeful lyrics. His heartache is real and poignant, yet it's presented realistically. DeMarco masks grief and pain with a light-hearted eccentricity the way so many of us do.
Sometimes we have to buck up, play a little music and smile through the pain. That attitude is what made Salad Days and Another One so relatable and fun, and that attitude is what may have driven DeMarco to give out his home address on "My House by the Water." So if you're ever in Queens and feeling blue, stop by DeMarco's house for a cup of coffee.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Another One on Amazon and keep up with all your Mac DeMarco news and tour dates on his Zumic artist page.
