Mac Demarco - Five Easy Hot Dogs Review
There aren’t any ‘stand-out’ tracks in this album, perhaps intentionally.
‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ isn't some grand artistic statement. It's not filled with emotive jazzy ballads or surfy dream pop. Instead Mac Demarco aimlessly wandered along the west coast, creating a track a day to justify the trip; compiling fourteen instrumental musak-esc songs to fill the 35 minute runtime.
Gualala is the first and only track to feature Mac’s vocals; uttering a tired “one, two, three, four” into the microphone to begin the album, he’s resigned to quietly sit back whilst the remaining music unfolds. Sounding much closer to the demo companion albums he releases on record store day than the sunny summer hits of 2 or Salad Days, Mac's new album is far from his best and Mac is well aware that these tracks don’t compare to his previous work. In a 2019 interview with PBS Mac commented on an instrumental demo that sounds similar to these new tracks, stating it was “pure garbage, but fun to make”.
In an industry that pushes artists to their breaking point with unrealistic deadlines, immense pressure and inhumane touring schedules; Mac's new album feels like a rebellion against marketable music. His outward expression of disgust towards the music industry that TikTok and similar sources are promoting, may in part be responsible for this drastic change of pace. Mac resents artists that create music to go viral or fit into algorithms, while many of his previous tracks have unintentionally enjoyed success on the app. Duress has mounted onto him to create similar ‘bangers’ that can garner millions of brief listens and Mac has outright refused.
There aren’t any ‘stand-out’ tracks in this album, perhaps intentionally. Instead the tracks fade together in a tired, mellow stupor; accompanying Mac both figuratively and literally along his great American road trip. The album’s recording saw Mac solo travel from LA to Utah following the death of his father, refusing to return until he had finished the record; naming the tracks after the locations they were recorded. The title of the album itself is a reference to the film ‘Five Easy Pieces’ that shows Jack Nicolson pushing away connections with those around him on a road trip across the country to see his dying father. Mac’s own issues with his father were the subject of 2017’s ‘This Old Dog’ and lost friends and connections the subject of 2019’s ‘Be the Cowboy’. ‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ is released on Demarco’s own record label and it feels like his sordid reflection on industry insistence.
Songs like Vancouver begin with the familiar jazzy lead guitar sound that has perpetrated his records. Its simple looping composition calls for development and grand movement that is never answered and instead holds fast to its simplistic, almost ambient, structure. Swinging drums, jazzy basslines and chorus laden rhythm guitar perpetrate the record, exhibiting Mac’s stylistic touchstones. The tracks’ tempos are rarely placed above an ambling pace. Chipper woodblock snaps its way into tracks like Portland and jazz flute rhythmically stabs into Portland 2 as bouncing picked acoustic pins the track down. Drunken synth fades into songs, pushing the listener along this musical highway that they can barely keep their eyes open for. Mac’s nomadic recording schedule seems to influence the entirety of the bleary tracklist.
‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ may be the beginning of Mac’s career for himself and while the tracks may be a stark departure from his previous work, they conjure a vivid image of tired cross country road travel. I’ve certainly enjoyed having the tracks play in the background whilst I walk across the wintered Brighton landscape. Mac needed the road trip, his travel had no destination and no known end; recording and finishing a track a day was just his way of justifying this time away.
Mac Demarco is well aware that his grasp on indie pop culture could slip at any moment. He does not care.