3/28/14

Here's a serious throwback. Tonight I was browsing through Spotify seeking something familiar and fresh, I remember Mae existed, and I remembered once, I really enjoyed them. "Destination: Beautiful" always held up a little higher to my mind, but today I figured I'd give their second LP,  "The Everglow," a try. I think this album was given to me as a gift on my 16th birthday after my junior prom, and I probably haven't listened to it in full since maybe my first year of college. Upon revisiting, most of it floated by OK, and I found it listenable and charming. I remembered all the words, I remembered the brightness, but nothing struck me in any fresh way until the closer kicked in.



Carrying a song with piano, strings and vocal harmonies is a delicate thing to pull off, mostly because it is delicate. It is easy to make an impression if you are loud. It is easy to make an impression if you are catchy and hook filled. When you are subtle, when there is space, your decisions must be ever more careful. Which is what makes the stellar verses and simple construction of "The Sun and the Moon" shine even brighter. While I am fairly certain those synthy-sounding strings were not recorded live in studio, the movement they provide is the kind of touch that elevated Mae upon other emo counterparts of the age (is Mae emo? I'd put up that argument if I had to but there's probably a better genre to label).

Musically, it's the last four minutes where they really make the impression with a post-rock build of sorts, with a transition to guitars picking up the chords and the spine of the song in a dramatic sweep. The piano shifts to a variation on earlier themes for understated fills before (and  a muted silence on the mix, and you end with something grand and memorable from where you started with very few pieces. Lyrically, I love how little this song uses to say what it needs to say, how the weight and the depth are effortlessly phrased. I love how the words end and let the final movement finish the conversation, and I love how grand that gesture seems. Not a bad track to rediscover, and a proper incentive for listening to their releases from later in the decade that, I am sorry to say, I passed over.

"Wasted time.
I cannot say that I was ready for this.
But when worlds collide,
and all that I have is all that I want.
The words seem to flow
and the thoughts they keep running.
And all that I have is yours.
All that I am is yours.

Painted skies.
I've seen so many that cannot compare
to your ocean eyes.
The pictures you took
that cover your room,
and it was just like the sun
but more like the moon.
A light that can reach it all.
So now I'm branded for taking the fall.

So when you say forever,
can't you see
you've already captured me."

~The Sun and the Moon 

Mae, The Everglow

(Also, while doing a little Wiki research for this, I discovered Charlotte Martin does the opening/closing narratives on this album. Time to go see what she's put out since 2005, or just listen to "On Your Shore" and see what it sounds like this far removed from 16.)

10/4/12

Found this song on a mix recently, love it more now than I did then. Sort of bummed I can't find a video with the album version, because I love the production and it sounds so good at the last couple lines...but this version has fun solos, even if the audio sucks and it cuts off super abruptly at the end. YouTube, I expected more from you.



I never really listened to Mae after "The Everglow," probably should check it out for kicks. Their songs have a consistent frankness about the consistent perils love and want and life...and yet their songs exudes positivity, for an early 2000s scene group, anyway.

"She greets the day with her hair wet
She asks them to vacate the building
Because she's got a plan they don't know yet
And if it goes wrong, there'll be no one to see
If she could just get the word out
God knows she's trying
They're watching her with eyes closed
She's always stuck with the old route
Does anyone knock when they barge in to beat her down?

Will you come back?
It's all she wants to know,
She knows she's part of the problem too.
Could she let it go?
It'd take a miracle,
So that's what I'm praying for.

No one can know just how she feels,
She won't use the phone, she's too tired to pick it up.
She's going back to the old way,
She sits in the classroom to learn with the others.

Please don't give up when it's easy
Don't you know that me and Jesus will cheer you on?
He's the only one that will be constantly everything you need

Will you come back?
It's all she wants to know,
She knows she's part of the problem too.
Could she let it go?
It'd take a miracle
So that's what I'm praying for.

She lives on Tisbury Lane
She lives on Tisbury Lane"

~Tisbury Lane 

Mae, Destination: Beautiful

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Mae's album "Destination: Beautiful" as "Embers and Envelopes," which is actually the name of the first track. The sleepy author regrets this error, because "Destination: Beautiful" is a great album title.

7/12/10

Why are you so good to me, WBER? Free Energy twice in one day, The National's "Sorrow" on my lunch break, and all other sorts of good things in between? Though I have an iPod shuffle for the car, it holds like five CDs but radio's pretty good sometimes. There's usually a bit of channel surfing for whatever's good if something too electro-poppy noise beep boooop BOP comes on (you know?), but there's a lot of good in there. Caught U2's "One" the other day, too..."Well it's too late/tonight/to drag the past out into the light." Nottt bad. And that was fabulous on Glee.

Oh and these guys are going on their last tour, indefinitely. Love them, very good band.