No. In fact, it is the only way to truly experience the genius of Salad Days . At first glance, requesting a FLAC copy of a Mac DeMarco record seems contradictory. DeMarco is notorious for recording on old Tascam 388 tape machines, purposefully detuning his guitars, and leaving in the sounds of chair squeaks, amp hum, and cigarette burns. Salad Days is not Dark Side of the Moon . It isn’t sterile.

But for the discerning audiophile and the dedicated fan, there is a specific, high-stakes search query that continues to surface over a decade later: . Why seek out a lossless FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) version of an album famous for its tape-wobble, hiss, and “junky” production? Isn’t that missing the point?

Salad Days is not about pristine perfection. It is about the beauty of decay, the warmth of imperfection, and the sadness of growing up. Listening to it in lossless FLAC allows you to feel the texture of that decay. You hear the tape hiss as a blanket, not a distraction. You hear the warble as an instrument, not an error.