Five Easy Hotdogs: An Odd Album, a Weirder Name

Mac Demarco’s music has always sounded roughly the same: a soft synth, an acoustic guitar, or a beachy electric guitar, with some often heartfelt personal lyrics. Since Rock and Roll Night Club, this kind of sound has always struck home with audiences, offering an alluring and personal look into the life of Demarco, behind his often reckless personality. However, on Demaro’s latest album, Five Easy Hotdogs, released on January 20th of this year, he detaches himself completely from the songs with an entirely instrumental album. While this may be a shocking twist in his sound, I don’t think it should come completely unexpected, or even mark a significant change for the future of Demarco’s music.

Five Easy Hotdogs, according to Vanity Fair, was recorded on a spontaneous road trip with five childhood friends, and it seems as though Demarco is taking a step back and simply producing music that sounds well produced without mcuh effort. The songs retain much of the familiar “Marco-isms'' that listeners would recognize (ie. a woodblock-beat, use of a softer electronic sound, and catchy acoustic guitar riffs), but they are notably less remarkable than many of Demarco’s previous songs. This “step back” from hard-hitting lyrics and memorable compositions makes sense with the success Demarco made with his last four albums: 2, Salad Days, This Old Dog, and Here Comes the Cowboy, each with their own hits. Demarco is allowed to take a break, and has a fan base from the music he has made before to keep his name in the zeitgeist. 

This instrumental shift is even more expected when looking at Demarco’s past albums that often featured instrumental songs on most of his albums excluding Rock and Roll Night Club and Here Comes the Cowboy. However, it should be noted that Here Comes the Cowboy features a song with the only lyrics being “here comes the cowboy” repeated ten times -- so it's not surprising that Demarco continued to explore that side of his music. However, an entirely instrumental album can still be shocking.

Compared to Demarco’s past works, Five Easy Hot Dogs is particularly reflective on the current moment, with each song being titled after the city it was recorded in. This demonstrates Demarco’s need for a break from the contemplative songs he had found success in before, which often featured themes of Demarco’s childhood, and reconciliation with it. When listening to “Vancouver 3,” for example, listeners don’t get a look into Demarco himself, but rather the feeling of his surroundings, almost as if listening to a musical observation of the world from the perspective of Demarco. 

While Five Easy Hot Dogs may not be what fans have been waiting for from Demarco, it is clear that throughout the album, the sound of the “old” Mac Demarco is still there, and the transition to instrumentals is not entirely out of nowhere. Yes, the album is not the most memorable of Demarco’s, but it may be necessary for the future of his music, to take a step back and simply just look around.