Mac Demarco This Old Dog

Captured Tracks

he forever-loveable Mac Demarco is back with his fifth studio album. Although the new record, the first since 2015’s underrated Another One, represents a slight shift in sound, the 26-year-old New Yorker’s music remains as sweet and charming as ever. This Old Dog has a distinctly acoustic atmosphere. The youthful energy and pace of Salad Days has been replaced with a quieter, gentler outlook that softly laps away with a soulful sincerity throughout. More personal and intimate than his previous albums, this record finds Demarco in a reflective mood, as accentuated by the prevailing unplugged atmosphere. The LP’s more subtle verve comes from the addition of more synth-focused tones and drum machines, both of which feature much more heavily than on any of Demarco’s previous records but still never outweigh the laidback, carelessness of his idiosyncratic sound. Perhaps symptomatic of his move from New York to LA last summer, the record has a more spaced out, hazy sheen where time seems to go out the window for the afternoon. Slowed down, stripped back and personal, yet still full of playfulness and contented joy, This Old Dog is an utterly beguiling record that suggests that Mac Demarco is only going to learn more adorable tricks the older he gets.

ADD THESE TO YOUR PLAYLIST: My Old Man, Still Beating, On The Level| 8/10