''Five Easy Hot Dogs'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician

Mac DeMarco McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco (born Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV; April 21, 1990) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He has released five full-length studio albums: his debut '' 2'' (2012), '' Salad Days' ...

. A departure from the previous studio albums in DeMarco's discography, the album is entirely instrumental and was recorded during a road trip from

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. It was announced on January 4, 2023, and released on January 20.

Background

DeMarco recorded the album in 2022 during a road trip from

and

. During the road trip, he stopped smoking and drinking, which he said was "pretty fucking difficult". He booked multiple hotels during the trip, in which he stayed and recorded the songs in. For recording equipment, he used a Lynx Aurora

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, eight

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312 preamps,

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s, a old

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, and two Genelec monitors.

Critical reception

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, the album received a 68, which indicates "generally favourable reviews", based on 11 reviews. In a positive review by

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, "This is no holding exercise. Instead, think beautifully conceived curio."

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wrote, "''Five Easy Hot Dogs'' is an incredibly addictive record that entices with its lightheartedness and almost weightlessness, which is aided by the absence of vocals and lyrics. It allows the listener to attribute their own meaning to these 14 compositions, while also being able to imagine DeMarco’s trip, driving town to town." Exclaim! Magazine writer Alex Hudson wrote "It's certainly not going to produce the next "Viceroy" or "Chamber of Reflection," but it's an exceedingly pleasant listen — the kind of thing that's the perfect soundtrack for working and studying, or to make chores a little more tolerable."

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writer Daniel Bromfield wrote "Though each track is named for where it was recorded, there’s not much to distinguish one stop from another, and though you could connect the locations into a journey, these tracks don’t form an arc but play as if stacked atop one another."

Point of view

In a

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interview, DeMarco said this about the album.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, instruments,

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, mixing, recording * David Ives – mastering

Charts

References

{{Mac DeMarco 2023 albums Mac DeMarco albums 2020s instrumental albums