For Record Store Day, Mac DeMarco released not one, but two new demo albums for 2019’s Here Comes the Cowboy. The jizz jazzer has returned now with a feature on “Rolled Up”, the latest single from Dutch pop artist Benny Sings.
DeMarco’s lo-fi and lax aesthetic is well represented here, as is Benny Sings’ throwback groove, which sounds like a cross between the Bee Gees and The Stylistics. For all the chillness between them, though, “Rolled Up” is full of heavy existential reflection: “Rolled up, tossed out/ Trying to understand why my life turned south/ Oh I’m holed up, locked out, shut in, held down,” the opening verse reads.
In a statement, Benny Sings talked about the track’s meaning and how it came together back during pre-coronavirus times:
“The song is about being in the dumps without a particular reason,” says Benny. “Things can be pretty good, but still you feel like shit. Sometimes leaving it all can be a cure. We wrote this together last year in Mac’s studio. I think Mac went out to get some coffee, and he heard someone use the phrase ‘rolled up, tossed out,’ talking about a cigarette. So that was the start of it. It felt pretty effortless, I think we both come from the same place songwriting-wise. Was a dream to work with him. A true artist.”
Below, check out the video for “Rolled Up”. The Bear Damen-directed clip was shot at each of the artists’ respective quarantine spaces, and DeMarco can be seen hanging poolside in Los Angeles.
Benny Sings, whose received cosigns from Rex Orange County and John Mayer, recently filmed a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert featuring “Rolled Up”. DeMarco, meanwhile, debuted a new song on Colbert over the summer.