Filip has already covered three tracks from Mary & Adelaide’s debut album, Celebrate Another Day of Living: “Hoodie Zipper”, “Collared”, and “You Pulled Up”. If you’re a real Start-Track freak and already got introduced to the Oshawa, Ontario-based band, groovy. Otherwise, welcome to the party.
Mary & Adelaide have put out music for the better part of the last decade, and on their latest album (out 1/16/2026), they’ve taken eight tracks – some polished from their past, some shiny and new – and put them out as a “best-of-the-best” collection. Their style is very “friends playing together in the garage”, which makes for some of the finest music. The self-proclaimed moniker of “suburban post-core” proves accurate. It would make a great soundtrack for a Canadian TV show about high school.
“Hoodie Zipper” leads off the album, a ninety-five-second-long track beginning with a simple voice-and-guitar riff: “Oh my God, life’s so hard, staring through my hoodie zipper/Oh my God, life’s so hard, I could leave it if I wanted.” The track stems from a three-year-old YouTube demo which became a fan favorite, and for good reason: By the end, the whole band’s joined in to blare the chorus, and the roar of voices sounds like the garage is packed full of fans singing along with them.
“Junk” follows, a solid indie/emo track with romantic nuances, meaning – yes – “junk” in this context means what you think it means. But despite the track’s allusions, it more confronts the feeling of not knowing what to do around the person causing those lustful feelings.
Then “You Pulled Up” takes a more pop-oriented approach, but still carries on the nuance from the previous track. Filip mentioned the emotionally-charged lyrics in his feature of the song, noting that the band wanted them to resonate with listeners. I concur: New fans will want to hear “You Pulled Up” over and over again.
I find albums with multiple-part songs rare; not everyone can be Pink Floyd, releasing something like “Another Brick In The Wall”. But Mary & Adelaide have both “Hannah” and “Hannah Part Two” on Celebrate Another Day of Living. The first version is more withdrawn and acoustic, with the whole band coming in only toward the end. Part two, however, acts as a harder, more electric jam, with the band rocking out on the chorus from start to finish. The subject of the song, of course, is the titular Hannah: “Hannah/I know you won’t leave/You’ll stay stuck like me/People can be mean”.
“All The Times” is another quick-and-dirty track of raucous indie punk with jangling guitars and full-band harmonies, where, despite the lyrics saying “Hard to tell you how I’m thinking all the time,” they manage to convey deep fear and anxiety, keeping in line with the album’s theme of growth and grappling with changing emotions.
“U.S.A.” follows, and while it may seem interesting for a band from Canada to write a song named after their southern neighbor, the song has little to do with the States. It’s a slowed-down track about getting the motivation to leave the house and go on a wild road trip with friends, fighting back anxiety in order to see the world before adulthood hits, and more anxiety awaits.
Finally, “Collared” sums up the main theme of the record: Getting older and getting scared of losing the things that make you “you.” “I thought I’d wanna talk to you by now/Did you see my hair, I grew it out/But lately it’s cut it or let it fall out”, the band sings, making the connection between hair, age, and identity. As someone who looks in the mirror and sees their hairline receding, I connect with this line. As the band sings on “Collared”, even if hair goes away and age starts to catch up, it remains important not to lose personality, cheer, and childish joy.
But sometimes, the roar of the crowd gets too loud, and singing about emotions gets old. We must carry on, or – as the title of Mary & Adelaide’s record proclaims – “celebrate another day of living”. No matter how old we get, at least we aren’t dead until the day we die, and that day is not today.
The minds behind Mary & Adelaide are Aidan McGuirk (lead guitar/vocals), Kyle Topolnisky (bass), Sam Szigeti (guitar/vocals), and Luke Mitchell (drums). Take a listen to Celebrate Another Day of Living below.
Written by Will Sisskind
