Here Comes the Cowboy

Let me tel you something: I have an intense bittersweet feeling towards this album. Bitter because of some extra-musical circumstances I tied to this album. Depression, loss, addiction, the whole mile, yadda yadda. But on the other hand, there's this beautiful sweetness to it that is very palpable in the sound of it, that also fills me up like a honey pot.

One word to sum it up: burnout. Sometime around the release of this album, Mac was tired of being this comical darling of the music industry that's supposed to be the face of the “chill” subculture of the internet that he created on 2 and Salad Days. This Old Dog started shedding this picture, which deemed him a used product not nearly as marketable to a new generation, which culminated in the final domino falling: him leaving Captured Tracks and starting to do music on his own accord and in his own way.

Thus, we arrive to Here Comes The Cowboy, the first album in his “off the grid“ saga.

I think this album is a perfect representation of what my generation became. Overexhausted to the point of lethargy. I think the whole mood this album sets is overshadowed by COVID, since in that period, everyone was exhausted, so the whole concluding thought that the young generations were in a state of being completely fried by social media and high expectations set by society, ourselves and the mutilated images of those around us was diluted, and the album never got the right shade of light shined on it.

Its content is not different to that of his previous album. You could argue it's more slowed and personal, which it is, but the idea is largely the same, with a lot more put under the scope. Songs like Preoccupied, On The Square, All of Our Yesterdays and Finally Alone perfectly depict that feeling of being burnt out with a dumbed down emotional reception.

I think it's one of the more underrated albums of all time, and I was shocked when I saw the reception of it. I loved it from the moment it got released, and I still do, even with its flawed throwaway songs, which you could make an argument were half-assed for an artistic flavor, but I think it was Mac's honest attempt at making a few throwback songs.

Purely on how much it means to me, it's probably a 5/5, but objectively it's a 4.