Mac DeMarco’s “One More Love Song” Is a True-Blue Tearjerker

It’s not likely many of Mac DeMarco’s songs have spurned a shed tear. Early in his career, he wrote goofball guitar pop about chain-smoking cigarettes and his girlfriend, never dipping too deep into his psyche. But lately, he’s flashed a streak of introspection, tackling his difficult relationship with his father and reckoning with the difficulty of success. “One More Love Song,” the latest dispatch from This Old Dog, is the closest he’s come to a true tearjerker.

“One More Love Song” is a somber synth ballad, complete with the bluest chord progression DeMarco’s ever conceived. The keyboard slinks, downtrodden, like Charlie Brown shuffling his way home beneath his own personal raincloud. Little pops of distorted percussion and a prickly, sour guitar line balance the swaying keys, giving the song a smoky feel. During the writing process of This Old Dog, DeMarco was listening to Yellow Magic Orchestra and James Taylor, and this bears itself out here: smooth and groovy, but heartbreaking at the same time. His lyrics, too, show him in a grimmer frame of mind, imagining a new love eventually turn to dust (“One more love/Out to break your heart set it up/Just to watch it fall apart”).

In a recent New York Times profile, DeMarco more or less admits that his irreverent public persona might have derailed the more serious aspirations he’s had as an artist. “One More Love Song,” is a strong indication that Mac’s well on his way to growing up.

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