Here Comes The Cowboy - Mac DeMarco: Review

Mac DeMarco

is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has become one of the most popular figures in indie music this decade. He has received critical success and increasing commercial presence with each of a line of his last three project. 2012's 2 was his breakout success and he followed it with the indie darling Salad Days in 2014 and found even more increased commercial success in 2017 with the long and personal This Old Dog. After leaving his label with rumors of creative conflicts he has released a series of singles that seem to point towards an album that is more stripped back and slower paced than ever before, but his fans appear to have followed. 

Review By Lavender:

I've had a pretty consistent and solid relationship with Mac over these past few years. While I think his first two projects may be a touch overrated Salad Days showed me his full potential and became one of my favorite albums of 2014. Since then I enjoyed 2015's Another One mini project and 2017's This Old Dog as well as the first two singles leading up to Here Comes The Cowboy. But it is with everything I hadn't heard leading up to the album that makes it such an incredible disappointment. 

Before we talk about where this album went so wrong let's talk about the head start it squandered. This thing had three singles and I came away from all of them positively. The lead single and my favorite of the three is Nobody a track that lives in the world of worthwhile buildups and fantastic lyrics that see Mac weaving personal and emotional narratives. The song is incredibly patient but done in the best way with his knack for great songwriting, the bright instrumentation that lines the song is another great feature that is sorely missed across the rest of the album. The second single All Of Our Yesterdays I liked quite a bit as well and it resembles Mac's style more than almost any of the other songs here. With some breezy psychedelic instrumentation and and a sugary sweet performance the track is right in Mac's wheelhouse but I wouldn't consider it to be one of his best ever. The third single that Mac snuck in right before the albums release was On The Square, my least favorite of the singles but still a solid ballad with enough life in the performance and instrumental to make it worthwhile. 

There is seriously, seriously only one track left on the album aside from the single that I unequivocally enjoyed every part of and that's K. It is a somber but engaging ballad with much more personality than anything else here and a simple instrumental but one that works well with the songs themes and energy. To the albums credit through there are a few other tracks that I think are ultimately worth holding onto. Shockingly I found myself coming back to the title track and opening song Here Comes The Cowboy which is seriously just three minutes of the title's words repeated. Though it may be a little patience testing the repeated refrain is a catchy one and the distant sullen instrumentation is compelling when you retrospect on just how boring so much of this album really is. Heart To Heart is mostly a great track that reintroduces some great keys and has some excellent lyrics in its verses. The only place it really falls short is on a flat, repetitive and completely uninspired hook that I could totally do without. 

And honestly that is most of the tracks I have much of anything good to say about. There are a handful of songs that feature either some catchy guitar licks, one decently hooky refrain or a chorus that is interesting the first time but far too many of them fall flat on their face when extended to a full length song. Finally Alone, Little Dogs March, and Skyless Moon fit under this criteria. Bye Bye Bye is a slow song with a pointless and wandering hook that closes off the album, for some reasons there is a terrible sounding reprise tacked on at the end that doesn't do anything at all for the song or album. Hey Cowgirl tries to help out with establishing the theme but falls noticeably flat. The lyrics get old very quickly and the song doesn't have anything else worthwhile to help keep your attention.

Preoccupied is a stripped back song that is so simple I can't imagine Mac spent more time writing the track than he did actually recording it. The hook is so flat and everything is so desperately unwritten that I don't understand how any Mac fans can justify this tracks inclusion on the album. But if there is one track that is a huge standout it's Choo Choo. A song I initially enjoyed given that there is so much more going on instrumentally than any other track here, but given that the full two and a half minutes is centered around Mac saying "choo choo, take a ride with me" it is by far the biggest novelty track Mac has ever made. The funky guitar and Damon Albarn impression are interesting in the beginning but ultimately while this song stands out on a boring album, it is not something I see myself ever returning to. 

Reading back on this review I noticed that I brought up something being "worthwhile" multiple times and I think that is a result of this album being so not worth my while. So many tracks here are just so stripped back and underwritten that it would be impossible for me to justify their inclusion. But it isn't like this is an hour+ album with plenty of great material, this thing is already short and considering how much of it is truly, really worth your time, I can't justify a friendly score for an artist I've given out plenty to. I consider myself a Mac DeMarco fan and I will certainly continue to listen to whatever he puts out but points on this album are so underwritten that I can't help but worry about what his future may be like without a label keeping him in line. 4/10

Best Track: Nobody

For more indie pop check out my review of The Drums' Brutalism here.