Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
MojoFeb 22, 2023This is no holding exercise. Instead, think beautifully conceived curio. [Apr 2023, p.85]
-
Jan 19, 2023Through its simplicity, Five Easy Hot Dogs achieved a level of beauty that redefines Demarco as a musician. Instead of relying on cheeky guitar tones and whispering vocal melodies, Demarco created a project that expresses his diversity without it feeling forced.
-
Jan 20, 2023It does not at all feel lazy, rather a conscious effort to do something new. 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.
-
Jan 19, 2023While perhaps not the return to bigger records that fans of Salad Days might have hoped for, Five Easy Hot Dogs stays true to the linear, if unexpected, evolution of Mac DeMarco’s music. Each iteration is somehow even more sparse and experimental; it seems this record is the result of DeMarco slowly whittling down his sound until it is just its own essential core.
-
Jan 19, 2023It'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.
-
UncutFeb 15, 2023Despite the scattered and itinerant nature of the process, there's a pleasing coherence and warmth to the record. [Apr 2023, p.26]
-
Jan 23, 2023‘Five Easy Hot Dogs’ isn’t going to win DeMarco any more fans, nor will it distract from his past triumphs. ... This instrumental offering will, like most of his tunes, act as great company for those who just wanna lay back and disconnect from it all.
-
Jan 20, 2023Whilst it is purposefully lacking in intention, the experimental album has its moments of whimsy but feels noticeably devoid of humour, surprising for a musician known for his zaniness. Still a cohesive affair, it’s an apt depiction of transience and Mac DeMarco is taking us all along for the ride.
-
Jan 20, 2023Though 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.
-
Jan 19, 2023This release is probably more for Mac DeMarco super fans than casual listeners, as there's nothing resembling the happy-go-lucky hooks of his best-loved songs, just the incidental sounds collected on a slow, aimless wander.
-
Jan 19, 2023Each instrumental, named after its place of origin, floats by languorously and begins to blur together into a gentle, placid paste not even three songs in. Each track is gorgeous, but they’re all also immeasurably passive, with only a few key differences between each to make them separate entities.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 7 out of 17
-
Mixed: 6 out of 17
-
Negative: 4 out of 17
-
Jan 23, 2023
-
Jan 20, 2023
-
Mar 22, 2023