One Wayne G

In January of 2023, Canadian indie artist Mac DeMarco offered up his somewhat lackluster, entirely instrumental album Five Easy Hotdogs, a collection of tracks written and recorded in transit that were pleasant at times but mostly felt like nonchalant background music. Several months later, he quickly followed with One Wayne G, doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down and beyond on the laissez-faire approach of Five Easy Hotdogs with 199 largely instrumental tracks that add up to almost nine hours of music. This enormous body of music is made up of demos, sketches, and songs in various stages of production from between 2018 and 2023, many of them titled only with numbers suggesting the dates they were created and most of these sounding like off-the-cuff goofing around more than deeply considered compositions. Thats not to say there arent some gems buried in among the less exciting experiments. While many tracks stick to DeMarcos signature laid-back and woozy instrumental style, he dabbles with multiple different genres across the collection. Theres some legitimately funky stuff happening on "20190724," and forays into new age synthesis on "20200811." Its the clusters of songs with vocals that feel most in line with the charmed songwriting that DeMarco is best known for. "Fooled by Love" carries the gentle sweetness of early Lennon/McCartney numbers, and sillier songs like "Proud True Toyota" or "Father of the Year" are a little undercooked but thoroughly enjoyable. Getting through every last track on One Wayne G is a daunting prospect, but those already enamored with DeMarcos weird wonders will want to absorb it all eventually, just maybe not in one sitting. ~ Fred Thomas