Lizzie Irwin

Mac Demarco is the kind of dude that has the ability to polarise. Despite his awkwardly wiry body and signature gaped tooth, girls want to make out with him. Despite the fact that he’s been known to shove drumsticks up his butt at live shows and refers to his home recording studio as ‘Jizz Jazz’ this eccentric behaviour doesn't isolate him from hoards of adoring fans. His online presence ensures music listeners have decided they want to befriend the crooner, contacting him via Twitter and Facebook, where he calls each and every one of his fans ‘Gary’ without a second thought. Although his quirks are still prevalent and laid bare on his latest album ‘2’, it’s still a departure from ‘Rock N’ Roll Nightclub’, the quintessentially cheesy album he released earlier in 2012.

‘Rock N’ Roll Nightclub’ saw Demarco use voice effects that purveyors of the classic deep comedy voice, Tim & Eric themselves would be proud of, to segue between tracks with flamboyant ‘radio announcers’ introducing the songs. None of these comedic moments are present on ‘2’ but there is still a sense of tongue-in-cheek fun with Mac deciding to keep his ‘Elvis’ persona well and truly alive. The Elvis persona is the result of some experimentation from the artist who formerly created punk rock chaos under the moniker, Makeout Videotape. Ever since lowering his voice an octave and deciding to call out to 70s AM rock in a bedroom pop type style that artists such as Ariel Pink have been pioneering for years. Mac in turn has reached out to legions of new fans and now sees cassettes full of material flooding his infamous Jizz Jazz studio.

Although it’s easy to see Mac Demarco as a bit of a joke artist, he’s serious business – two incredibly captivating albums in one year, an onslaught of live shows keeping him busy and a work ethic that spells out blood, sweat and tears. ‘2’ is a step in the right direction. The album doesn't entirely dispel his casual approach to music with intro track ‘Cooking Up Something Good’ still sounding as loose and effortless as his other works all whilst revealing the sobering mediocrity of suburban life. The song may sound like a bag of fun but underneath the slides and funky guitar riffs there’s a harrowing story about a father who is manufacturing illicit drugs in the family basement. Where the last album focused on irony rather than sincerity, this album makes up for lost time. The new tracks are utterly gut wrenching and reveal Demarco’s ability to give rise to impalpable emotions in a mere three minutes.

Not only has Demarco honed in on his songwriting skills but he’s retained his knack for a soulful and slow moving love song on the whimsical ‘My Kind Of Woman’ and upped his guitar game with some impressive riff-work seen on tracks like ‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’. ‘Freaking Out The Neighbourhood’ has a guitar riff that sounds as though it has been injected with salt water, sand and fake tan, but there’s nothing relaxed or thoughtless about the way this dude wrangles his axe. His calming demeanor is expressed perfectly on the former where he treats a sickening love obsession with a sort of defeat “it’s really no fuss” he says of the obsession.

Other highlights include ‘Ode to Viceroy’, a slow moving ballad dedicated to Demarco’s favourite brand of cigarette. The love affair between Demarco and his beloved Viceroy cigarettes is so immense and accounted for that it would be criminal for the brand to deny him any kind of sponsorship deal. The song follows the album’s theme of recapping the mediocre moments imminent in daily life by documenting a day in the life of a chain smoker. The song manages to make this sad affair sound like the grandest love story of them all, but soon dissolves the grandeur with spurts of coughing concluding the track. It’s pretty bleak stuff.

On the album Demarco filters through a lot of content – drug trafficking, cigarette addiction, failed relationships, family dysfunction and of course, getting love right. You could feel bogged down by the immensity of it all but you’re too caught up in the casualness of the hypnotizing guitar work to really care about how tragic it is. And I think that’s exactly the way the dude intended it, either that or he’s just so unintentionally good at songwriting that he accidentally struck genius. World class stuff.