{"id":147872,"date":"2025-08-25T07:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T07:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/mac-demarco-guitar-album-review\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T13:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:16:07","slug":"mac-demarco-guitar-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/mac-demarco-guitar-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac DeMarco: Guitar Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The most powerful moment on Guitar arrives just 45 seconds into the fourth track, \u201cNightmare.\u201d The song starts already in motion, with DeMarco\u2019s voice coming in so early it feels like he\u2019s rushing to confess something he\u2019s been holding back. Maybe there\u2019s been a fight, and his partner is still asleep in the next room. It\u2019s a miracle, he admits, that she stays at all. \u201cRoll up those sleeves, boy,\u201d he sings in a soft, almost fragile falsetto, gentle as a worn-in teddy bear. \u201cSmoke the whole pack \/ There\u2019s no turning back from this one.\u201d In just a few lines, he captures that lifelong tug-of-war\u2014trying to get it together, trying to be worthy of the love you somehow found.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, DeMarco\u2019s partner, Kiera McNally, has shown incredible patience, standing by him through chaotic early days all the way to these quieter times pruning olive trees on a remote island. And here he is, waking up tangled in regret, determined to be better.<\/p>\n

In just two minutes, \u201cNightmare\u201d captures the heart of this album\u2014DeMarco taking a hard look at his past while mustering the resolve to become who he wants to be. That tension echoes throughout Guitar. On \u201cKnockin\u2019,\u201d a laid-back country-funk tune, old regrets show up like unwanted guests at the house he built for his future. \u201cHome\u201d drifts like a hazy George Harrison daydream, with DeMarco reflecting on people and places he left behind\u2014each one a ghost there to remind him of where he\u2019s failed. Every beat feels like another hurdle he\u2019s pushing himself to clear.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the songs about hope\u2014about trying\u2014that make Guitar so deeply moving. \u201cSweeter\u201d sounds like it\u2019s coming from rock bottom, a confession from someone who\u2019s messed up one too many times. Yet when DeMarco promises, \u201cThis time, I will be sweeter \/ I can be much sweeter,\u201d it\u2019s so honest and straightforward that you can\u2019t help but root for him. On \u201cPunishment,\u201d he goes searching for the part of himself that can fight off his worst impulses. \u201cHoly\u201d is even more direct\u2014a plea to break free from a \u201ccurse from down below.\u201d You can almost feel the old chains starting to loosen.<\/p>\n

DeMarco\u2019s first album came out the month I got engaged; his second landed just before I turned 30 and got married. Back when his music was all about late nights and bad habits, I was wrestling with my own. His songs felt like a distorted mirror. Now, listening to Guitar, it seems like he\u2019s caught that same reflection\u2014someone trying to outrun a past threaded with addiction. But these songs, tender and raw and cautiously hopeful, make it clear he\u2019s getting somewhere. \u201cAll those days of trying to run \/ What a waste of breath,\u201d he sings, like he\u2019s finally letting go of a breath he\u2019s been holding for years. Maybe no matter what you\u2019re up against, you can still try to be a little like this version of Mac DeMarco, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The most powerful moment on Guitar arrives just 45 seconds into the fourth track, \u201cNightmare.\u201d The song starts already in motion, with DeMarco\u2019s voice coming in so early it feels like he\u2019s rushing to confess something he\u2019s been holding back. Maybe there\u2019s been a fight, and his partner is still asleep in the next room. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[12766,11575,779],"class_list":{"0":"post-147872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-demarco","9":"tag-guitar","10":"tag-review"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}