After two fugged-out albums of slacker rock and trippy blue-eyed soul, something really clicked and Edmendton’s premiere Viceroy obsessive suddenly became a household name.

Originally released on April Fools Day in 2014, Salad Days was the third LP from Brooklyn-based, Montreal native, Mac Demarco. Released on NYC’s Captured Tracks, it followed his Rock and Roll Night Club and 2 albums that had both been released in 2012 and had introduced the warped and woozing slacker. Although Salad Days very much swam the same sonic routes as its predecessors - and certainly couldn’t be called a departure - every aspect just became a little bit tighter. The production was dense but his skills gave the rich analogue hum plenty of space and definition. His humour was very much still at the forefront, but there was also a sweetness and the first signs of who Mac might actually be. Salad Days was all about giving himself away.
His first albums were drenched in irreverence, a jokey and goofy laidback guitar romp through jokes and laments on how he filled his day (mostly smoking, jamming and crushing cans), and perhaps unsurprisingly it had landed him the reputation of a bit of a goof. It was a little hard to commit to how alluring the hybrid of feelgood riffs and smart observations were because you weren’t ever quite sure whether you were in on the joke, or perhaps part of it. On Salad Days, without any sort of clearly demonstrable departure, he crystallised all of his most charming skills into becoming the figurehead of a whole slack movement.

Making it sound like he’s not trying was very much part of the allure. Salad Days is full of very smart music that sounds more like it was written to soundtrack an idle afternoon. One of the album’s most evocative hooks is "Chamber of Reflection", itself based on Sekitō Shigeo’s composition “Word 2”. This is not the frame of reference for a frat guy. One thing that gets mentioned less than it should do is that not only did he record it to tape in his own apartment, he actually performed all of it and mixed it himself. Salad Days is his greatest success because he became the Mac Demaro auteur.
The hype was huge and the new king of “Jizz Jazz” (which thankfully was a short lived micro genre) inspired years’ worth of pretty rubbish acolytes and hackneyed imitators. That was always the biggest and best joke, Mac and his band could really play! As folks found out, it actually does take a lot to make it all sound so easy.

With a laconic vocal style and brilliantly measured instrumentation, it’s just such a breezy half-hour. As the album turns ten, it still sounds charming, honest and and unique as it did on arrival. A dreamy, eleven-track set of laidback pop nuggets. He captured a vibe and they were - and are - Salad Days.

+ To celebrate Salad Days at ten, we went back into the Deluxe archives and have published an interview we did with Mac whilst he was just finishing up the record. You can read that in full, here.



+ Captured Tracks have produced a gloriously lavish celebratory anniversary edition. Pressed on a really striking double Holographic vinyl, one side of each disc is covered in beautiful light catching prisms, it’s dead good fun. The unique high gloss ‘Chamber Of Reflection’ package is pretty stunning too, housing both the album and its demos alongside a poster and a 12-page booklet with tour dates, original rider, previously unpublished photos, and new liners written by Mac.