Here Comes the Cowboy

Mac DeMarco - Here Comes the Cowboy
Critic Score
Based on 36 reviews
2019 Ratings: #742 / 805
User Score
2019 Rank: #828
Liked by 67 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
NME

The slacker hero slows things down on his fourth full-length album, finding catharsis in gentle instrumentation and thoughtful lyrics.

80
No Ripcord

The end result is the kind of unique album that only results from someone who has spent a career staying true to themselves, playing every instrument, writing every song, adopting a singular fashion stance, and even opening their own record label. This album is a reflection of that growth.

80
Uncut

An album that’s braver, weirder and richer than most of his more sensible and brand-conscious peers could ever manage.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

Here Comes the Cowboy proves DeMarco can still own his psychedelic, lighthearted sound, while adding something fresh and novel.

70
PopMatters

Here Comes the Cowboy is a thorny, frightening, often frustrating record about the passage of time.

70
Clash

On ‘Here Comes The Cowboy’, DeMarco rides the line between being stripped-back and being forgettable, but it’s impossible not to indulge yourself in every lyric and note he sings.

70
Rolling Stone

These stark songs are meditative, lonely, and stubbornly isolated, like spending 45 minutes petting a cat. A static search for comfort.

70
Slant Magazine

The album doesn’t represent a progression so much as a broadening of what DeMarco has already proven himself to be capable of as a songwriter.

67
Consequence of Sound

DeMarco truly shines whenever a wider array of instruments and styles are at his disposal. When all of that is out of the picture, however, it dampens Here Comes the Cowboy’s full potential.

67
Pitchfork

The latest from the indie rock rapscallion is an often pretty, occasionally frustrating record that was recorded quickly, but still sounds labored over.

65
Spectrum Culture

On his latest, Here Comes the Cowboy, he adopts enough of the conventions of a restrained genre (broadly speaking, folk/country) that any penchant he might have for the cheesy is mostly reined in.

60
The Skinny

Here Comes the Cowboy carefully encapsulates a liberating sense of past struggle with heartbreaking lyrics and vivacious instrumentation, and in true DeMarco form it yields lush basslines and tranquil vocal melodies accompanied with simple percussion.

60
The Guardian

Here Comes the Cowboy may retain some of the disarming simplicity and emotional universality that has become DeMarco’s trademark, but it is ultimately an album that fails to welcome the listener warmly into its world.

60
DIY

An album that’s pleasant but kind of passes you by, and for a singer that was always so charismatic, being just ordinary feels like a bit of a bummer.

60
AllMusic

Here Comes the Cowboy might have been trimmed down to a solid EP or mini-album, but as a whole it just doesn't live up to the standards DeMarco set on his first three albums.

60
NOW Magazine

The cult-songwriter-turned-indie-poster-boy has shown growth and experimentation from record to record, but this is his first that lacks any explicit evolution.

60
Spill Magazine

Here Comes the Cowboy is not the Mac DeMarco that we fell in love with on 2 or Salad Days, but it’s clear that he wants to separate himself from his earlier sound. While Here Comes the Cowboy pulls it off it parts, it is far from his strongest effort.

60
The Observer

It’s beautifully played and engineered, with DeMarco’s nimble vocals softly caressing your speakers from inside, but it cossets where it could challenge.

60
Dork

This is a record that's 100% proof - true to itself and its creator at every step. In the most part, that's a positive thing. In others, it's a bitter sweet flaw.

60
FLOOD Magazine

DeMarco’s album provides a suitably slow-tempoed, faintly depressive balm for anyone whose lot in life is seclusion.

50
Highsnobiety

Here Comes the Cowboy is an album packed with good intentions, but will likely bore you to sleep before you even come close to finishing it.

50
Northern Transmissions

He does what makes him happy: writing music for himself. He doesn’t care what people think of his music anymore. He doesn’t even care if anyone listens to it, and on Here Comes the Cowboy, his indifference shows.

50
Loud and Quiet

Where a record like ‘Salad Days’ had majestically written melodies to fall back into, ‘Here Comes the Cowboy’ forgoes such structure, indulging in the lethargic haze to the point, frankly, of boredom.

50
Exclaim!

Here Comes the Cowboy is a disappointing turn from this perpetual overachiever.

50
The Line of Best Fit

Mac’s latest release is unremarkable in almost every way, it is powerfully inoffensive in its delivery, instrumentation and intent which makes it hard to engage with and harder still to enjoy.

50
The 405

Here Comes The Cowboy is calming, yet boring: a pattern persistent in all 45 minutes of the album. Throughout the album it's easy to tell Mac DeMarco doesn't take himself seriously.

40
The Independent

Once the toast of slackers everywhere, DeMarco has never sounded more ambivalent, ready to close his eyes and slink back into obscurity.

40
Tiny Mix Tapes

Perhaps the cowboy persona conceals a deeper truth he hints at internally, but unfortunately we don’t find any such refinement on Here Comes the Cowboy. Mac DeMarco lives in his own world, and I don’t think we’re invited in.

30
The Needle Drop

Mac DeMarco pares his songwriting down to something more minimal on Here Comes the Cowboy, losing a lot of personality along the way.

dearsongs
NR

I assumed this would be totally awful, with all the ‘pro’ critics dropping terrible reviews and what not. It’s not his best, and it may be his worst, but it’s way better than the scores indicate. I personally think the whole mitski thing has put a damper on the reception. Mac could have handled the ‘uproar’ differently, but after some context Mac coming up with this title isn’t out of the question

Perhaps the only thing worse than Mac being a total ... read more

newslang
60

Boy howdy

Edit: Oh no choo choo

PipePanic
60

From this and Vampire Weekend coming out in the last two weeks, it's a grand time for quirky white collage students.

I've never really gone out of my way to listen to Mac DeMarcos music, which i've realized now is a slightly annoying last name to type out over and over again. It's not like h'es creating bad music or anything (My Kind of Women is such a banger) it's just not really the type of music I listen to all the time. So when this popped up as a new release, I didn't really notice at ... read more

Gavmin
86

naw that 53 rating is bull choo choo funky as fuck

EDIT: squad this might be my first unpopular opinion, this is kinda fucking fire???

strickland
70

Demo versions are surprisingly better

hwilliams7902
71

I again don't understand the low ratings for this album. It was great. Charming and chilling like Mac's previous work, great album

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Track List

1Here Comes the Cowboy
3:00
52
2Nobody
3:32
78
3Finally Alone
2:24
76
4Little Dogs March
2:29
67
5Preoccupied
3:59
82
6Choo Choo
2:39
55
7K
3:33
72
8Heart to Heart
3:31
84
9Hey Cowgirl
2:15
65
10On the Square
3:29
76
11All of Our Yesterdays
4:03
84
12Skyless Moon
4:04
68
13Baby Bye Bye
7:28
66
Total Length: 46 minutes

Year End Lists

#26/Q Magazine
#44/Rough Trade
#47/Les Inrocks
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Added on: March 5, 2019