Mae - The Everglow

Considering that Tooth and Nail is a small label, it's unusual how many albums I have that are released on it. Dead Poetic, Project 86, two by Anberlin, two by Emery, three by Underoath, and now Mae. Some of it is not so great and I'm annoyed by their tendency to put out "Special Editions" with a few extra tracks that just annoy fans who already bought the album, but it's generally pretty solid punk. Mae fits with this trend. There's a special edition, but the regular one was cheaper and has better art, in my opinion.

Honestly, this kind of music doesn't quite do it for me anymore. It's completely pleasant, never irritating, has some real emotions in it, and is fairly good technically. But my tastes have shifted away from decent pop punk/emo and towards more original stuff. There's nothing wrong with The Everglow, I enjoy listening to it, it just doesn't grab my attention as much as I'd like. I like the vocalist, he has a nice voice that fits the tone of the music very well. The album has a concept behind it, and it plays out like an audio storybook that's accompanied by the drawings in the booklet.

The main problem is the lack of recognizable tracks. Only a few songs stick out from the rest of the pretty standard rock sound. It's all guitars and drums, except for the first and last songs which are more piano-focused ballads. My favorite song is "Someone Else's Arms". It's a good genre song and I love the way it enters the chorus. "Suspension" is a pretty decent single, although not terribly interesting musically. "Painless" is another standout with the picked intro, piano-driven verse, and recurring wall of sound. The title track has a really catchy chorus, and I also like "Anything" a lot. If you're into the general scene Mae inhabits, you'd probably enjoy The Everglow.