Review Summary: Uno, Dos, Tres part 2.
Sad is the second part in a planned trilogy of albums by Mayday Parade. Despite fizzeling out at the end, Sad sees more consistant songwriting compared to Sweet albeit without any tracks that really stand. Where Sweet had songs like "By the Way" that is likely to stay in their setlists for years to come, the same cannot be said for the songs presented on Sad.
That being said, fans of their more straight forward pop punk outings like Anywhere but Here and their self-titled opus will surely find enjoyment in songs like "It's Not All Bad", "Promises" and "In Every Shape and Every Form". It's not all power chords and earworms of course, this is Mayday Parade after all, and like every Mayday record the piano heavy songs "One Day at the Time" and the tongue twister "I Must Obey the Inscrutable Exhortations of My Soul" bring the waterworks similair in production to songs found on their "Monsters in the Closet" record.
The great outlier of the album is "Breakup Song" which sticks out like a soar thumb not just on Sad but their discographry in general, having a more playful tone, seeming more like a joke than anything else. While this would be welcome on a Blink-182 record, it's inclusion on Sad comes off as more of an afterthought or a way to lengthen the already short project which would've clocked in at bsrely 25 miniutes of playtime without it.
This brings me to my main concern of their overal trilogy concept, reminding me of the grueling experience that was Uno, Dos, Tres by Green Day. Both Sad and Sweet stand on their own as servicable albums, or EP's if we're being difficult, but if Mayday Parade, the unmatched emo pop punker's have to sacrifice the quality of their songs in favor of quantity though silly b-sides, it is surely not a good sign of things to come for the trilogy's conclusion which is expected to release this year as well. Both releases has it's fair amount of tracks that if combined would've presented a much stronger album, instead of a handfull servicable EP's wich more likely than not will be overshadowed by their vastly superior releases.
That being said, Sad is a not a bad EP just not a memorable one. It is a pretty straight forward and simple project that won't convince anyone that's not already a fan of their style of pop punk to give them another shot. It is a MaydayParasw EP that comes with all their expected bells and wistles. Emotional lyrics, palm muting, power chords, blues leads and a loud ass grand piano. Here's to hoping Mayday Parade stick the landing on the final EP and haven't bitten off more than they can chew.
