Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog

Before you ancients out there turn your heads and scoff at the premise of a twentysomething rock-and-roll goofball calling himself an old-anything, consider this:

Mac DeMarco has spent the better part of his time thus far writing, recording, and releasing an album of his own music pretty much every calendar flip. This Old Dog makes
for his fifth in just over half a decade—bringing the total to 3 LPs and 2 EPs. According
to the DMV, DeMarco is 26. But in working-dog years, ol’ Mac here could easily
qualify for social security. To stay gold, turns out all he needed was some new tricks.
It was a little space—in time, location, and method—that inspired DeMarco while
making the record. Moving from his isolated Queens home to a house in Los Angeles
helped give the somewhat transient Canada-native a base, and a few more months
on his calendar to create did their job as well. Arriving in California with a grip of
demos he’d written in New York, he realized after a few months of setting up his new
shop—complete with a few new toys—that the gap was giving him perspective (insert
tooth joke here).

Right off the bat, from the pops and clicks of the CR-78 drum machine and acoustic
strums on the album-opening “My Old Man,” the synth-drenched beauty of the
second track, “This Old Dog,” it’s clear that DeMarco’s bag is filled with new tricks
indeed. This Old Dog is rooted more in a synth-base than any of his previous releases,
but he is careful not to let that tactic overshadow the other instruments and overall
“unplugged” mood of the work: “This is my acoustic album, but it’s not really an acoustic album at all. That’s just what it feels like, mostly,” says DeMarco.

Despite the changes considered during the creation of This Old Dog, Mac DeMarco’s mid-twenties masterpiece, it’s clear that the engine that motors him is in no
danger of slowing down.