Most well known as being Mac DeMarco’s late guitarist, Peter Sagar, has been quietly working on his independent project Homeshake since 2013 starting with the Homeshake Tape. Homeshake’s unique style can be characterized as laidback and funky bedroom pop that is both incredibly relaxing and sexy. Sagar finally leaves the comforts of his home for a smoke break in Fresh Air after meandering through his kitchen in 2015’s Midnight Snack and the bathroom from 2014’s In the Shower. This release was hotly anticipated after Midnight Snack and is much lighter instrumentally while still incorporating heavier feelings of sadness and loneliness.
“Hey…..Hey….. HEY — Are you even paying attention to me right now?” grips your attention from the start of “Every Single Thing,” a brilliant song about being caught up inside yourself within a relationship. Small attention grabbers like this are scattered about Homeshake’s Fresh Air to bring you out of the otherwise slow-feeling atmosphere that creates a sense of being stuck in your head. The title track has cold and calming wind effects that feels like contemplatively looking outside the window on a blizzardy day while Sagar nonchalantly drones “I can’t figure anything out” and how “I can do whatever I feel.” This track is one of Homeshake’s longer ones at just over six minutes and can lose the listener. The album picks up right after with “Serious” with guitar effects that resemble sirens, but the album quickly fades within the following tracks and disappears with a click in “Signing Off.”
Homeshake’s albums have a lonely vibe to them, possibly attributed to the fact that most of the production and recording is done in Sagar’s apartment in Montreal. Fresh Air is no exception. The album has a stripped down feel with less guitar work and more keyboard synths. Sagar croons on about “her” throughout the album, a combination of his long-term partner Salina and a possible dream woman explored in “Moon Woman” from the Homeshake Tape. Fresh Air is the next step in his trek through the house, a perfect album for that contemplative walk outside which encourages the mind to wander. It leaving you pensive and calm, but don’t look to this album to brighten up your day. “I was dreaming as you spoke and not listening to you” may be thrown right back at Sagar for some of the more forgettable tracks on here.