In 2008, Makeout Videotape was the moniker under which Demarco worked, alongside Alex Calder. Their first record Heatwave was sufficiently lo-fi so as to make even the fuzziest of Melbourne fuzz bands blush and the following EPs never really grew out of the obsession with capped distortion. The last Makeout Videotape record, Ying Yang was a still mired in clangy distortion but it hinted at a few Demarcan melodies that would later surface with more padding and more pretense.
Demarco eventually shed Calder and began doing his own thing under the name Mac Demarco (nothing too surprising there). Rock and Roll Nightclub EP dropped in 2012 and was, let’s be honest, completely haphazard as a technical release. Not that anyone would ever dream of pitching a Demarco record on the merits of its technicality but this had half of the structural constructiveness that 2 would have (released later in 2012) and 2 didn’t even feature particularly structural tracks. Rock and Roll Nightclub would be a blissed out record if you could say in good conscience that it was blissful. Blissful ignorance, perhaps. The bliss of an empty syringe and a now loosened belt loop as you pass out in your mouldy recliner. Yeah, I said it.
That said, it’s probably important to remember that by this point our boy Demarco was still just freshly a man grown yet the record that came out next is the record that I most want you to consider. 2 is as lost up it’s own suburban ass as Rock and Roll Nightclub was but there’s something a whole lot more directed about each individual track. The twanging guitars lost several kilograms of the residual post-Makeout-Videotape-fuzz while for the first time Demarco is actually, you know, kind of singing. The descending arpeggios in ‘Ode To Viceroy’ tell me that Demarco has learned to move his guitar strings a little better than he had in his Makeout Videotape days which is good, as much of 2 is spent wrapped in the extended whines and moans of gloriously elongated fingerpicking.
The album is capped off with ocean lullaby 'Together’ a track that might be the most coherant concept of the record. Slow and calm, no isolated freakouts, just a man praising his simple love. I’m willing to take bets on when this will find its way into a Wes Anderson film. The only streamable link I can find is via spotify so you’ll have to make do here.
If you’re ready to get down with the hipcat crowd, this is a surefire entryway that won’t demand any significant cover charge while shirking all technical frills.
-Tommy Faith
