Reviews

The Everglow opens with the most annoying intro ever.  There is absolutely nothing to recommend Prologue, a track at once both pretentious and childish. Luckily, this crappy bookend to Mae’s storybook concept album can be pushed past with one swift click of the fast forward button, and then it’s track after track of pure syrupy pop. That is, until the Epilogue, track fifteen. At this time, turn the power off. You’ve had almost an hour of fluffy, catchy choruses and sweetly tinkling electronics and guitars.  Go listen to something with some substance.
 
Mae’s second full length since their 2003 debut fully realizes their gift for memorable songs, songs that have as much anger, intellect, or punk rock as a cloud, but that will be stuck in your head for days and days.  The Everglow also sheds light on last year’s more experimental Mae release Destination:B-Sides, as electronics are now firmly embedded and enmeshed in the song structure.  The standout track on this new album, Suspension, made its first appearance on the B-sides disc in slightly different form. The Everglow positions itself as some sort of pop music fairy tale, but if you look past this blunder and the accompanying twenty-five page illustrated lyric book (lyrics which use the word ‘stars’ so many times that the word is simply denoted with a symbol; a celestial asterisk) a really solid album appears.
 
Like most recent Tooth and Nail releases, this album sounds fantastic. The songs are catchy, the sound incorporates pop structures with piano accents, electronic blips and beeps, and voice modulation.  Mae’s time crafting and creating the Everglow was obviously well spent, but one has to ask - did they not have anything important to say?