Singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco has released 11 albums and 5 eps. 2 was Mac DeMarcos first studio album and truly set the tone for the genre of his music in the future.

Mac DeMarco’s genre is categorized as alternative/indie. 2 was released Oct. 12, 2012, and has a total length of 31:27 minutes. The album has millions of streams on Spotify, and was nominated as one of “The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far” by Pitchfork in 2014. 

The album starts with “Cooking Up Something Good”. At 2:40, this song is short yet tells a story, detailing about DeMarco’s family and the lives they live. It opens by telling a story of a stereotypical family that DeMarco feels like the black sheep of. He doesn’t fit into the picture-perfect household he lives in.

The chorus repeats: “Ooh when life moves this slowly, Ooh just try and let it go”. This is the first time he mentions feeling stuck in the present boringness of his hometown. This song is a great opening to this album with sweet melodic and alternative guitar being played in the background, a theme throughout the rest of the album. 

The second track is “Dreaming”. This is once again a short yet sweet song depicting the first time he sees his love, Kiera Mcnally. The song details how he has been dreaming about her since the first time they met. This song once again contains a simple guitar melody and is one of the slower songs in the album.

The next track, “Freaking Out The Neighborhood”, is one of the most popular songs within the album. The song describes his mom being worried about him and the activities he’s getting into, though he swears he is still the same. This song has a faster beat and more guitar solos. 

The fourth track, “Annie”, uses the name “Annie” as a placeholder for a woman he’s in love with. He confides in her and cries about how lonely it is to be without who he really loves. The production on this song is probably one of the best on the album. 

At 5:32, “Ode to Viceroy” doesn’t really fit the rest of the album but rather details DeMarco’s nicotine addiction and how he will smoke it until he’s dying. 

The sixth track is “Robson Girl”. It details a love he had that didn’t work. He tells her that they can try again some day. These lyrics are paired with more alternative style guitar. 

In the next track, “The Stars Keep Calling on my Name”, DeMarco implies that though he is becoming famous, he will never leave his love, and he will take her wherever he goes. She will always be his go-to person. DeMarco also expresses to his love that his hometown is making him distraught, but he thinks of her and it gets him through these emotions.

“My Kind of Woman” is 3:10 minutes long. In this song, DeMarco is pleading with this woman to be with him. When he says “show me your world” he is expressing that he wants to be in the world in which she built and see the world from her perspective. DeMarco has had many rough times: struggling with genetic alcoholism and his rocky relationship with his father. Despite all of that, his girlfriend of seven years, Kiera McNally stuck by his side. This verse is expressing his gratitude to her even though he doesn’t understand why she stayed for so long. 

“Boe Zaah”, the ninth track, is an instrumental piece. It’s different than the other songs on the album. The instruments are beautiful and the production is a favorite of ours. It’s hard to put together an enjoyable solely instrumental piece but he accomplished it.

“Sherrill” explains how DeMarco insisted on sticking by “Sherrill’s” side and not leaving. He said it’s okay for her to go and cry but he’d stay there no matter what.

Finally, “Still Together”, at 3:17, ends the album with a story about love. It keeps the theme of him staying with his love no matter what, and how he can’t fathom the fact that they are still together.

This song ends with dialogue between the two of them:

“Mac: Kiki. Kiki? Hey. Time for bed. You’re sleeping! Let’s go. Ready?

Kiki: I have a bruise there

Mac: Yeah, you got a little indentation from the glasses that you fell asleep with on your face. I love you”

Overall, this album was raw and yet somehow still sophisticated. Alternative yet soulful. This album is a work of emotional art with stories that definitely set the tone for the rest of DeMarco’s career. Though some songs move slowly and are repetitive, each song is lyrically unique and catchy.

Together, we rated the album an average of 8.5/10.