Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days couldn’t be more aptly named– jangly, crisp, and mellow, it seems vaguely longing of times past, but almost as if Mac were too stoned, or oblivious, or both, to remember what those salad days were really like.
Much like 2012’s 2, Salad Days employs some breezy hooks and dissonant chord combinations to keep things light but interesting. The title track is a perfect example of this– it’s classic, carefree Mac, just strumming away and not caring too much about the expectations bestowed upon him by…his mom, or anyone, really.
Salad Days gets a little more psychedelic than we’ve seen Mac get before, ranging from slightly psych to “holy-late-era-Beatles, batman” in magnitude of psych-ness. For evidence of the latter, take a listen to “Passing Out Pieces”, whose awesome synth line makes it one of the least Mac-like songs on this album but also one of the best.
I could go on describing every one of these songs in great length to you, but since you should do it anyway, you’re better off listening to the whole album yourself– check it out streaming below, and grab it for yourself from Captured Tracks.