Mae was recommended to me as a Death Cab for Cutie fan, so I was quite skeptical when I started listening to Destination Beautiful. Anytime someone quotes a contemporary band when recommending an equally contemporary band, it is hard to imagine them living up to such a recent comparison. As it turned out, Mae didn't really remind me much of Death Cab at all, but what I found was exceptional in its own right. Mae creates melodic, poppy rock songs with beautiful vocals that rock harder than Coldplay and never reach the cleanliness and safety of Something Corporate.
The band (signed to Tooth and Nail Records) has a new album out called The Everglow and my expectations are nothing but high considering the quality of Destination Beautiful.
Others have agreed with my assessment of Mae:
70,000 copies of an album is no small amount for a relatively small label like Tooth and Nail and I am sure their expectations are high for The Everglow.
Judging by what I hear, The Everglow picks up where Destination Beautiful left off. It is filled with nice melodies, good riffs, and a somewhat matured style, especially in the vocal department.
Hightlight tracks include "Someone Else's Arms", "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making", and "Anything."
I am sure in independent music circles it will get compared to Copeland and Lovedrug and possibly even the aforementioned Something Corporate. I think that while some of the themes are different, those are all comparable sounds.
On a personal level, I like it better than the new Copeland record and not as much as the debut from Lovedrug.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Craig --
This now has another venue for success - and more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a place affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
Even though it is a little delayed, also please let your contact know, if you had one, that this article, is published at one more place. That helps to show they get two?, three? for the "price" of one.
Thank you.
Temple Stark