2 by Mac DeMarco

2 is Mac DeMarco's first proper full-length, recorded in June 2012 and released that October on Captured Tracks. He'd left Vancouver for Montreal the year before, and his mini-LP Rock and Roll Nightclub, all slowed-down vocals and glammy crooning, got enough ears perked that the label bankrolled an album.

He ditched the gimmicks for this one. Cut in his Mile End apartment, reportedly with nothing on but his underwear, 2 is plain, woozy guitar rock: wobbly, sun-bleached riffs, lazy grooves and a slacker's shrug that's more charming than it has any right to be. His music has been tagged blue wave and slacker rock; DeMarco has his own cruder name for it. "Cooking Up Something Good" is the song that later showed up on the countdowns, and the lone acoustic number, "Still Together", reworks an older song from his Makeout Videotape days, with DeMarco slipping into falsetto on the chorus.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.