His voice is recorded bone-dry to enhance his conversational tone-he sounds like he’s never more than a barstool away.

In addition to playing every instrument, he produced and engineered This Old Dog, and the arrangements are minimal and impeccable. Even though they are not derivative, you swear you’ve heard them before because they show such a proficiency for songwriting structure.īy now, DeMarco has mastered the art of recording, at least within the parameters he’s established for himself. Each melodic shift, every turnaround on the chords during the choruses, every bridge-all are exactly where they should be. On a casual listen, DeMarco seems to kick back and let everything fall into place, but his music demonstrates a relentless devotion to craft, with all the fundamentals intact. The move to a more “classic” sound suits DeMarco’s music, and it’s also a reminder that what at first glance seems like laziness might actually be brutal efficiency. If 2 brought to mind a dank basement, the best songs here throw open the windows and let in the sunshine. “One Another” twinkles like an earlier generation’s soda jingle, with a little slouch that invites finger snaps with every backbeat. “Baby You’re Out” tumbles beautifully through its chord changes like a soccer ball falling down a stairwell that manages to hit every fourth step. The title track brings to mind Little Joy in its unhurried and confident sense of swing, and DeMarco’s natural warmth and weariness shine through. This approach brings to mind singer-songwriters of an earlier era, particularly iconoclasts like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and JJ Cale. For a guy who seems to live life off the cuff and in the moment, his music feels more timeless.

There’s more acoustic guitar and less processing, which frees it from the post-chillwave context of his earlier music. Compared to the two records before it, the new album is less cluttered, never using two words when one will do, and generally going easy on the woozy guitar effects. But This Old Dog, DeMarco’s third album, does show some signs of growth. At this point, a radical change-up for DeMarco would be weird-he’s got his style, it works, and he’s sticking with it.

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