Mac Demarco, over the past 5 years or so, has quickly become every music site/ blog's favorite fun loving, stoner type dude who simply writes songs to have a good time. However, to me, Mac has been on the brink of writing an album with some actual serious themes for a good while now; sure, 2 was just out to have a good time, but albums like Salad Days and especially 2015's Another One took a far more serious and sort of sad look at themes like love and growing older. However, I feel like Mac has finally taken the plunge on his latest LP, This Old Dog and has in turn penned his most lyrically complex and compelling LP to date.
A quick disclaimer though, this album is not a concept album; instead, it is a heavily themed album; that theme being the conflicting emotions that Mac feels concerning his estranged father, the state of the world and again, love. These emotions are presented right from the start with the beautifully quaint and rootsy "My Old Man", a track that sees Mac putting what comes off as one of his biggest fears into words, with the lyrics describing how he is becoming more cynical and cold, just like his dad. It's no secret that Mac's relationship with his biological father is pretty complicated, but this album is the first time I can recall him putting those feelings into song, multiple songs in fact, as the two closing tracks "Moonlight On The River" and "Watching Him Fade Away" present two of the most gut wrenching songs Mac has ever pinned. The former is in easily his most ambitious and long form composition to date, and it's a beautiful tune to boot.
In fact, aside from a heavier focus on more serious themes, Mac seems to be taking a more staid and mature approach to thing instrumentally as well. Seeing as a lot of the overly woozy guitars and left field effects trips are absent from this LP. Instead, Mac employs a lot of cool synths and acoustic guitars to construct these tracks, which leads to a much cleaner and again, mature sound, which lends more weight to the lyrics.
But not every track here deals with super heavy emotions; tracks like "Baby You're Out" and "For The First Time" feature the kind laid back and carefree attitude that typically shows up on a Mac Demarco album, but to me, the highlights are definitely the more town tempo or romantic cuts such as "One More Love Song" or the amazing "Still Beating".
To put it simply, This Old Dog is a great album, one that sees Mac growing both as an artist and a person, and in my opinion, it is his best effort yet; exactly the kind of album I wanted after the fantastic Another One.
9.0/10
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