The Review - New Music week of August 3rd from Mac DeMarco + Quick Looks from EL VY, Drake & Tee

After a week off (spent moving!) I’m back with the regular weekly music review to help you check something new out.

This week I’m doing another Mac DeMarco album, Another One, but wanted to give a heads up to some other new music I listened to this week.

Frontman of The National, Matt Berninger has a new side project, EL VY. Check out the song ‘Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, With Crescendo)’ below. This is one of my favourite songs from the past couple of weeks and has me excited for their full album, ‘Return to the Moon’ due out on October 30th.

Drake dropped four new tracks over the past couple of weeks and all are good but one stood out as a certified classic already: Hotline Bling. Drake has a knack for catchy choruses and lyrics that stay in your head long after the song is ove . . . this one is no different.

Find yourself thinking you needed a rock/metal supergroup made up of My Ruin guitarist Mick Murphy, Corrosion of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin, Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) and Burning Witch, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Nick Oliveri (former bassist for Queens of the Stone Age), Jello Biafra (former frontman of the Dead Kennedys, currently with Guantanamo School Of Medicine), Matt Skiba of the Alkaline Trio and current guitarist and vocalist for Blink 182, PLUS Randy Blythe of Lamb of God (and many more)? Well this week your needs came true in the form of ‘Teenage Time Killers’. Their debut, Teenage Time Killers: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 is a super fast hard metal punk album and a must to check out if you’re a fan of any of the above artists. Stand out tracks for me were Barrio, Egobomb and Hung Out to Dry.

Now to DeMarco’s latest offering, a short eight song EP called ‘Another One’. DeMarco seemingly has not stopped touring or putting out music for the past few years. I’m not sure if he is ever home, but he invited everyone who listens to the album over for coffee in the final song ‘My House By The Water’. If you’ve read earlier music posts from me, or if we’ve hung out in the past year, you know how much I love DeMarco. This album has Mac finding his groove and voice even more than any preceding album of his. He always has seemed comfortable on his records and laid back but on Another One there is a confidence in the lyrics and subject matter that hasn’t been there before.

NPR has DeMarco giving a track by track chat and he chalks the song with the same name as the album as his favourite song… it’s mine too. Beautiful heartfelt lyrcis to this song that Mac delivers on a keyboard.

This is DeMarco’s most emotional record, singing about lost or missed love. DeMarco performs two shows at The Commodore Ballroom at the end of October and this new EP will fill that room perfectly.

New music coming up next week includes a return from Dr.Dre in the form of official soundtrack to the N.W.A. inspired movie ‘Straight Outta Compton.

Got something you think I should hear… Let me know in the comments or on twitter @ryanjhobson.