Mac DeMarco – ‘Guitar’ album review: A pony that needs a new trick
Following up a 199-song album surely can’t be an easy task for any artist, and Mac DeMarco is no exception to this rule.
Having released the behemoth One Wayne G in 2023, alongside the understated instrumental record Five Easy Hot Dogs a few months prior, you would imagine that the Canadian singer-songwriter might have taken a bit of a break between then and his next full-length record. However, given his propensity for being prolific, there’s seemingly little you can do to convince him that ushering out the next record as rapidly as possible is a bad idea.
Granted, he’s no King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but One Wayne G was a perfect demonstration of just how much DeMarco commits himself to noting down ideas for songs on a regular basis. Not every song on the nine-hour beast was a fully finished product, but it served nicely as a scrapbook of his creative process, with a little bit of variety and desire to keep toying with new styles.
Five Easy Hot Dogs, on the other hand, disappointed fans with how scant and one-dimensional it felt. DeMarco’s vocals were nowhere to be heard, and all of the tracks blended into a single acoustic dirge for how it actively seemed to avoid changing pace or offering any sense of dynamism. Considering how much 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy polarised his audience, it was generally seen that this might be the start of his decline.
On Guitar, those concerns are only strengthened, as the addition of DeMarco’s increasingly world-weary vocals doesn’t do much in the way of adding to the stagnant and lethargic songwriting territory that he appears to sink further into with each release. It’s easy to understand that with age, he was bound to show signs of maturing beyond being the unwashed rapscallion who made chirpy jangle pop and burnt through a few packs of cigs a day, but in the maturation process, all of the buoyant charm that was present on 2 and Salad Days feels as though it was a different artist entirely.
Some features do make the DeMarco of old recognisable in the material heard on Guitar, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s brought over the good elements. His voice is still similarly soft, but it croaks considerably more than it did, and while a decade of abusing your throat will do that to you, switching to a more comfortable lower register might actually benefit the overall sound, considering how downbeat things are.
Not only that, but the fact that DeMarco insists on adopting a strict DIY ethic, where he plays all instruments on his records himself, means that he’s never chosen to work with a drummer in the studio. DeMarco’s lick is, well, serviceable at best, but the fact that it’s plastered over every song makes everything hard to differentiate between, and once again, we’re left with a record that practically flatlines its way through half an hour because he’s opted not to incorporate any rhythmic pattern shifts.
It wouldn’t be fair to criticise the album as a whole, as maybe a third of the songs have had enough care and attention put into them to make them enjoyable, but at the same time, all of these could do with additional arrangements and production added to them. DeMarco is evidently happy with voice, guitar, bass, and that drum pattern for the most part, and while that does make piecing things together less time-consuming, you feel as though highlights such as ‘Punishment’ and ‘Terror’ could really do with some embellishment.
Perhaps releasing 199 demos wasn’t the best thing he could have done for his career trajectory, because that now lowers the threshold for his standards; if he can get away with not finishing songs once, then maybe he can continue coasting along without putting in the additional graft.
I firmly believe that DeMarco has it in him to write another album of the same calibre as 2, Salad Days, or even This Old Dog, but the quirkiness that characterised his early career has been all but sapped in favour of half-baking records to keep up appearances, when in actual fact, being prolific is the last thing that his music needs to be. As the proverb says: “All work and no play makes Mac a dull boy.”
Defining track – ‘Punishment’: On a record that isn’t exactly swimming with highs, this is arguably the most pleasant one that shows flashes of the brilliance that DeMarco once had. It needs fleshing out, but it’s the skeleton of something brilliant.
For fans of: Adopting a melancholic demeanour for no apparent reason, just that you feel it suits your current vibe.
A concluding comment from everyone who’s been wearing plaid shirts and beat-up Vans since 2014: “Please say it isn’t so.”
Release Date: August 22nd, 2025 | Producer: Mac DeMarco | Label: Mac’s Record Label
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