UNF's #1 Student-Run News Source

UNF Spinnaker

UNF's #1 Student-Run News Source

UNF Spinnaker

UNF's #1 Student-Run News Source

UNF Spinnaker

Album Review: Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days

Mac Demarco's third album, Salad Days. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
Mac Demarco’s third album, Salad Days. Photo courtesy of Facebook.

He’s known for getting nude on stage while covering U2’s “Beautiful Day,” and then shocking the audience by shoving drumsticks up his sphincter. The Canadian-born musician often wears a denim button-down with an American flag design and a ‘Seattle’ hat on his head. He rocks a wide gap between his two front teeth and smokes a pack a day.

His birth certificate says Vernor Winfield Smith, but he goes by Mac DeMarco. His newest album, Salad Days, is a feel-good album with an evident “I don’t care” mentality.

According to Chicago-based Pitchfork Magazine, the 23-year-old is quickly becoming the “goofball prince of indie rock.” DeMarco calls his style “jizz-jazz,” which suits his latest album.

The album’s sound makes you want to dance on some tropical beach at night with the moon rising from the sea. You watch it rise with a drink in hand, leis around your neck, a Cuban cigar in your mouth, and smoke billowing in the still air. DeMarco is serenading you, and it’s a perfect dream.

DeMarco has some charming songs on the album, like “Go Easy,” where he sings about being there for his college sweetheart, Kiera.

His songs are divergent from his older stuff, like the popular “Ode to Viceroy,” which is a song dedicated to his love for the classic Viceroy cigarettes, and his promise to smoke them until the day he dies.

His newer songs exemplify an easy-going, carefree lifestyle—but still, they contain depth and an insight to DeMarco’s life with sarcastic lyrics like “Hell of a story, oh is it boring?” from his song “Passing Out the Pieces.” 

He’s now got three albums under his belt—2, Rock and Roll Nightclub, and now Salad Days.

More to Discover