Mac DeMarco (aka 26-year old MacBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco) has announced that he'll release, This Old Dog, his third album and first full-length since 2014’s Salad Days, on May 5th via Captured Tracks. In conjunction with the recent album announcement, DeMarco has shared two lead singles -- “My Old Man” and “This Old Dog.” They are the album’s openers and right off the bat, they show a new sonic direction and a glimpse into the very personal nature of this record.
It was a little space—in time, location (he moved from Queens to Los Angeles), and method—that inspired DeMarco while making This Old Dog. 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 that the gap was giving him perspective.
“I demoed a full album, and as I was moving to the West Coast I thought I’d get to finishing it quickly. But then I realized that moving to a new city, and starting a new life takes time. Usually I just write, record, and put it out; no problem," says DeMarco. "But this time, I wrote them and they sat. When that happens, you really get to know the songs. It was a different vibe.”
DeMarco wrote some demos for This Old Dog on an acoustic guitar, an eye-opening method for him. “The majority of this album is acoustic guitar, synthesizer, some drum machine, and one song is electric guitar. So this is a new thing for me.”
And from the outset, from the pops and clicks of the CR-78 and acoustic strums on the album-opening “My Old Man,” and 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. I’m Italian, so I guess this is an Italian rock record.”
Mac DeMarco’s This Old Dog is available for pre-order now. All iTunes pre-orders come with Instrumentals of This Old Dog and instant grat downloads of lead singles, “My Old Man,” and “This Old Dog.”
