14. Salad Days / Mac DeMarco

Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days is stoner music.  No other way to say it.  It is reggae for white people but without the reggae.  It is not psychedelic or acid rock, which you might have guessed, but laid-back guitar pop that bounces, bubbles, and squiggles its way to buzzy enjoyment.  Sluff English class, grab some headphones, and hit your basement couch.

DeMarco's slacker bona fides do not interfere with his sprightly, unique songwriting.  At only 23 years-old, he is strangely self-assured, and Salad Days sounds like a career-defining record from an artist that has toiled for decades.  His handle on the unspooling aesthetic is firm, and his guitar tones should make more seasoned players blush.  He works hard to eschew any sense of ambition, which reminds me of Stephen Malkmus’ 2001 solo debut, another weird record equally interested in strange character sketches and creative guitar doodles.

DeMarco was recently detained at his own show at the University of California-Santa Barbara for climbing on the scaffolding above the stage.  According to campus police, officers didn't realize DeMarco was the performer until they questioned him outside.  Clearly, he left the show with his cigarette-hanging, ball-cap wearing, chilled-out reputation intact.