Salad Days is the follow-up to 2012's lauded "Mac DeMarco 2" which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. 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, this 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.
Label: Captured Tracks – CT-193
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Repress, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 2015
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Tracklist
A1 Salad Days
A2 Blue Boy
A3 Brother
A4 Let Her Go
A5 Goodbye Weekend
A6 Let My Baby Stay
B1 Passing Out Pieces
B2 Treat Her Better
B3 Chamber Of Reflection
B4 Go Easy
B5 Jonny's Odyssey