Lo-fi pop/outsider music
Mac DeMarco’s first album under his own name is a wonderfully sleazy, cartoonish fusion of 60s and 80s pop. Supposedly DeMarco didn’t like the sound of the music he was working on, so he slowed it down and kept it that way. It’s like if Elvis were a total goofball slacker who decided to record all his music by himself. Excellent. Favorites: 1, 3, 4, 9, 12. FCC WARNING: 7, 10.

1. *(3:10)—Slow, campy, noir pop rock.
2. (0:34)—Fake legal ID—probably not FCC okay. Super creepy, deep voiced DJ named Dojo Daniel. Hilarious.
3. *(3:33)—Slow. About falling in love with a woman because of her jeans. Super catchy chorus.
4. *(4:05)—Medium-slow. Sappy 60s teenage heartbreak ballad, DeMarco style.
5. (3:17)—Medium-slow chug. More crooning. Oddly romantic.
6. (1:01)—Fake legal ID—probably not FCC okay. A DJ with a smooth, seductive voice says that, at 106.2 FM The Breeze, “we shoot the breeze, all day long.”
7. (3:04)—FCC (s***). Mid-tempo. Breezy, pretty. Higher-pitched vocals—first song for which DeMarco hasn’t slowed the vocal track.
8. (2:58)—Slow, bouncy, fun. Possibly about Michael Jackson.
9. *(2:41)—Slow, dreamy, particularly woozy. Heavy echo on the vocals.
10. (2:32)—FCC (s***). Mid-tempo. Back to the sleaze-noir persona. Jerky, catchy.
11. (2:59)—Mid-tempo. Like a 60s teen ballad run through a shoegaze filter. Instruments and vocals are at normal speed and pitch.
12. *(2:04)—Medium-slow. Similar sound to the previous song.