Salad Days: Mac DeMarco’s Definitive Moment
By: Matthew Spence
23-year-old Mac DeMarco had become a must listen to artist, that had felt like a commodity of the early 2010s. A charismatic, lovable, witty, indie artist who possibly loves cigarettes just as much as he loves music. With his sound he refers to as Jizz-Jazz, he garnered a wider spotlight from publications and audiences alike with the release of his debut album “2”, in 2012. With an 8.5 & Best New Album title from Pitchfork, 2 was an album that swept music fans as you get a sense of what Mac was about. Fun and light-hearted with songs such as “Ode to Viceroy”, a song dedicated to his favorite cigarette brand, yet very heartfelt and sincere with love songs dedicated to his girlfriend Kiera (My Kind of Woman & Still Together), and an apology record to his mom (Freaking Out the Neighborhood). His music felt mature and sincere and intimate while balanced with free-spirited energy and laid-back vibes. Now after 2, like many artists, Mac faced a big question, where will he go from here? Could he out-do the success and acclaim of 2 or would he face the curse of the sophomore slump? The answers to these questions result in his second LP, 2014s “Salad Days”.
2013 was a year of change and accustoming for Mac. He had been adapting to newfound success with 2012s “2” released in October of that year, he had moved to New York in an apartment in Brooklyn and now in a new place in his life, literally & metaphorically. Leading to the making of Salad Days, Mac had been touring and press consistently to where he was draining himself musically. Traveling to country to country and from state to state, took a toll on the pepperoni playboy as he needed a break to finally start recording his follow up to “2”. He spoke with QuipMag: “I had to block time off from touring and tell my management and label like no press, no nothing. Let me make an album. You guys are running me dead”. Label priorities had drained his drive for music as it started to feel like a chore, than a life fueling career. Everyone gave him the space he requested but it wasn’t a: “2 was out for over a year before I started recording Salad Days, I finally sat down and was like I have to do this. And it did feel like a chore. I was looking at it in a completely wrong way”. He continues “ I had to re-learn why I liked making music in the first place, why I liked recording in my room all the time. Because it’s fun. It’s fun for me. It’s only turned into this weird job in the last year or so. Once I figured that out, I was having a blast.” While touring used most of his time, it drove him to Mac to write new music.
Speaking to Line Of Best Fit, he explains: “I just had no fucking time to get anything new recorded,” he relates. “We were getting sick of having nothing new to play, and just dicking around with all these dumb classic rock covers every night”. In turn, it would be stress, pressure, hectic-ness that would ignite the making of the project. Helping himself stay persistent with every song he penned and he record as if he was a child being forced to sit and eat his vegetables. As the clock was ticking on beginning and finishing the album: “This time, I was sitting down with a really ‘start-to-finish’ kind of attitude to the songs. I kind of had to, with the time constraints. So, it was just, get the lyrics and the guitar line down and then worry about fleshing it out later. It was pretty sketchy, by the end”.
Salad Days takes a more advanced approach in songwriting. 2 in Mac’s words “felt like just a collection of songs”, Salads Days sees Mac get more personal than his previous release. We witness a dichotomy from him on camera to him in the studio. He strips away any goofiness for a more vulnerable approach, which contrasts with his predecessor. While not necessarily a drastic change, however, it sheds light on Macs’ artistry and gives a glimpse of Macs’ personal life and mindset as time continues forward: “The main motivation was just not wanting to make the same record again. I mean I was trying to throw people [off] a little bit, but I was still want to connect to it.” In turn, was a wise creative choice, as making the same album wouldn’t have helped his credibility as his music would feel redundant. Opening the album, the first lyrics we hear from Mac helps showcase the upcoming moments of self-consciousness and growth: “As I’m getting older, chip up on my shoulder Rolling through life, to roll over and die”. The album (and song) title itself comes from the phrase used in Shakespeare “Antony and Cleopatra”: “My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!”. The meaning of Salad Days is somewhat melancholic as it means “one’s’ peak or heyday”, yet in general it can means “ones’ time of youth of innocence and inexperience”.
Mac explains the idea of the title and expands to QuipMag: “ It refers to a youthful or innocent period. And a lot of people have been asking me already so you jaded? And I’m not, I’m 23. It’s me reflecting”. Now it’s up for interpretation if the album carries the theme of one’s Salad Days exact, yet we do see reflection throughout. The second track “Blue Boy”, DeMarco sings about a boy who expresses insecurities and questions the world around him, in two short verses with surf rock, inspired sound. It’s also noteworthy, on the cover of Salad Days, Mac is on the cover wearing a blue long sleeve shirt and a blue hat as he (intentionally or not), represents the blue boy who’s” worried about his haircut”.
As you move forward in the album, we get to the middle of the album with the track “Let My Baby Stay”, another about his girlfriend KiKi, however, it isn’t just another love song as it comes from a place of worry, mercy, and endearing love. As a ballad, it deals with Mac expressing his worry of her getting deported back to Canada as she didn’t have a proper visa, while pleads for the country to let her stay with him whether she has a proper visa or not. Mac elaborated on the situation a bit to Pitchfork: “She’s essentially an illegal immigrant in America. Her ability to enter and exit the States is threatened, so that’s a stress for me, and it’s pretty much all my fault.”. But the situation looked up after the release he mentions in Interview Magazine: “Everything’s fine now. I have a visa, and I put her on it. For a while things were a bit dicey. Imagine telling a girl, “Come to the States with me. Maybe you’ll get kicked out, and bonus, you can’t get a job!”.
Gearing up for the second half of the album, we are led to the two singles of the albums: “Passing Out Pieces” and “Treat Her Better”, but the climax of the album and arguably Mac’s most popular song is “Chamber of Reflection”. A synth-keyboard driven, Shigeo Sekito inspired (and sampled) album cut that sets the mood for a late-night drive or a night at home alone. Inspired by Freemasonry, Mac spends the nearly 4-minute song about spending time alone in his “chamber of reflection” to ponder on his life and to come “a better man”. Exploring how time alone is needed to reevaluate yourself so you can evolve for the better.
Mac spoke about the song to Pitchfork: “It’s like a meditation room, and they lock you in there for a period of time. The purpose is to reflect on what you’ve done in your life already and move on from it.”, he continues, “I think that’s what I did in this chamber of reflection right here. It was actually therapeutic,” he adds. “I feel a little enlightened, a little less heavy.” and in Macs debonair fashion finishes it by saying “It’s tight.”
Tracks like Chamber of Reflection and Passing Out Pieces are highlights of Mac’s songwriting: vague for the folks to take in and poetic for those to relate. As he sings lyrics “What mom don’t know, has taken its’ toll on me”, His songwriting throughout shows what you can do with simplicity as it is just as effective. The Pepperoni Playboy once said: “That’s what good pop music is made out of raw emotion”. In fact, the lyrics were the aspect of the recording he struggled with, he spoke with Passionweiss: “The only thing I ever really pain over is writing lyrics. That’s where I get stuck sometimes. Other times, it’s totally fine”
Sonically, the LP is a warm felt, chorus/delay/reverb galore, a laid-back album you can play at the beach or play in the back while doing homework. Essentially, it can be a Californian beach album, made by a Canadian in New York (which that is funny to think about). Yet, twist and turns are thrown in the album to throw off expectations, such as Chamber of Reflection being synth-heavy, Passing Out Pieces having an organ, and Johnny Oydessey being instrumental. Finishing the album, Mac expressed his thoughts on it and the pressure of the sophomore slump to Passionweiss: “I’m kinda terrified by it, to tell you the truth. This album’s got a lot more personal stuff in it. It was weird recording it because I would listen back to the songs, and usually, when I’m recording and listening back, I’m very excited. “Oh, man, that’s great!” But this time, I was writing about very specific things that have happened to me in the last year, so it’s kind of more like, “Ooh, this kind of makes me feel uneasy.” Or like, “Ooh, why did I write this new song to show all these people?”.
He continues by saying: “Plus, everybody’s waiting for the next Mac album. It’s like a big step or something in my career. That’s how everybody I work with is treating it. They’re putting all this pressure on it and shit. And it’s just kind of like, I don’t give a fuck, you know? I’m happy with the album, with the music itself. But just the whole machine it goes through before people hear it, it’s just fucking driving me crazy. Last time, with 2, no one even gave a shit. I was able to talk about it a lot more a lot earlier before it was coming out. I didn’t have to worry about, like, “When is it getting announced?” It was just kind of like, “Oh, I’ve got this album coming out.” “Oh, that’s cool.” But this time, it’s like, “Yo, man, the pressure’s on.”
Salad Days would go on to be one of the most acclaimed albums of 2014 and of the 2010s. Making the “best of 2014” list from numerous publications such as Pitchfork, Spin Magazine, and Rolling Stone Magazine. NME named it the second-best album of 2014, helping to cement Macs’ status as the “Prince of Indie Rock”. With the full-on on Youtube reaching 16 million views, Salad Days is an album that reaches many, to where the rapper Logic, in 2018, tattooed the title of the album on himself claiming it is one of the most “influential albums” to him. An album that can spread from generation to generation, whether older or younger, as it speaks maturity while still feeling youthful in sound leaving you wanting more once it’s over. While solidifying Mac DeMarco as one of the best artists of the 2010s and moving forward.
