On April 21, Mac DeMarco surprised fans with his new album, “One Wayne G.” The biggest surprise wasn’t that DeMarco released “One Wayne G“ only three months after his album “Five Easy Hot Dogs,” it was the number of songs on the album itself.  DeMarco released 199 songs on “One Wayne G” that were made between 2018 and 2023, making the album nine hours long. The question is, why?

DeMarco has been releasing music since 2012. His most popular songs include
“Heart to Heart,” “Chamber of Reflection” and “For the First Time.” The fewest number of songs on a DeMarco album is eight, with his 2013 release of “Live & Acoustic Vol. 1.” DeMarco usually only has 10 to 16 songs on each album, typical for most artists today. Most of the songs on “One Wayne G” have dates as titles, the first song titled “20180512” and the last song titled “20230114.”

The title of the album itself and total number of songs are a reference to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Mac DeMarco’s record label, Mac’s Record Label, posted on its Instagram story two photos of Gretzky with the text, “There is only one Wayne G.” In terms of the number of songs, Gretzky was known for wearing the number 99 on his jersey when playing for the Edmonton Oilers, hence the 199 tracks. DeMarco was raised in Edmonton, Canada.

Most of the songs on “One Wayne G” are instrumental tracks, as only 18 of them have actual lyrics. The songs with lyrics also have actual titles such as, “I Like Her,” “No Doubt About It” and “You Made The Bed.” If it weren’t for the instrumental tracks, “One Wayne G” would be only forty-five minutes.

DeMarco released the instrumental album, “Five Easy Hot Dogs,” only three months before “One Wayne G.” He produced it during a three-month-long road trip across North America. DeMarco wrote and recorded each song in a different city, and told himself he couldn’t go home until he finished the album, according to Yahoo Entertainment.

In an interview with Apple Music, DeMarco commented on the creation of  “Five Easy Hot Dogs.”

“I wanted to feel enveloped by the whole thing. I wanted to dispel the divide between my personal life and my public life, for my art, and just make it all one big glob. So, I just went,” DeMarco said.

Along with the release of these two albums, DeMarco will soon be going on tour in Los Angeles, London and Paris.

Paige Hanson can be reached at [email protected].