If I wanted to make writing this a little quicker I could stop there and just call it a good album/mini-LP/whatever, but I think it’s worth discussing a little further. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Another One had an equally quick turnaround as writing catchy, easy to listen to songs fit for a never-ending summer seems to come so easy to him. He again chose to record the album at home rather than in a studio ( the warmness in his production has always lent a lot to Mac’s music) and leading up to the release of Another One hosted a BBQ sound-tracked by an entirely different album of instrumentals he recorded in 4 days.
He seemingly has that deceptive knack of making music that sounds simple at first but rather than being bland it’s incredibly catchy and has a lot more depth the more you listen to it. Mac seemingly glides along with ease across 8 tracks, the things that made me get into his music in a big way last year are still there. Thankfully, Mac has been around the block for a good few years now ( having been a part of Makeout Videotape before going solo) and so as many singer-songwriters have done across the years, he’s become very comfortable and good at making the kind of music he wants to produce, in this case chilled out and energetic and at other times having the uncanny valley effect of sounding like some long lost release from the early 70s but with the little thing here or there that ties it in the present day. There’s plenty of songs about love, chorus pedal-laden guitar, upbeat basslines and just a hint that the wheels have fallen off a little bit in places. If you’ve been following the guy and his music for long enough then you may be relieved or unsurprised that his musical stylings remains firmly in tact here. On the surface level, calling this album Another One is either perfect or some self-deprecating humour from Mac. And it’s a good one, but not one without some caveats. It is another one though, I can definitely confirm that.
Whatever your position, this was one of the more surprising releases of the year coming in between Mac’s seemingly never-ending touring and just over a year after Salad Days. The label call it a ‘mini-LP’ but Mac has referred to it as the next release and at around 25 minutes, it’s only another track or two away from his previous full-lengths. Is Another One a new Mac DeMarco album or not? It’s certainly a question up for debate through this review and the release itself.
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