Review Summary: Afternoon: Noun. The time between noon and evening where excellent pop-rock bands put out atrocious, if well-meaning, EPs.
At this moment, Mae's website carries the tagline:
12 Songs. 12 Months. 1 Goal. Make A Difference. You'd be forgiven for thinking they were single-handedly ending the financial crisis and eradicating world hunger, but the Virginia pop-rock band are nearing the end of a year that's seen them put huge amounts of time and effort into raising $58 000 for various charitable causes, so you can forgive a small amount of exaggeration on their part. The 12 songs in question are taken from a set of 3 EPs, awkwardly titled (M)orning, (a)fternoon and (e)vening, each attempting to capture a specific mood and aesthetic. So go on, then. We all know what morning would (and did) sound like - carefree, light and open - and there's a good chance evening will be brooding, melancholic and backwards-glancing. But the afternoon is lazy; it drags, a halfway house between midday and dusk, unresolved and unspectacular. None of these things are exactly desirable in compact disc form.
Unfortunately, almost every single one of these descriptors applies in some measure. At 8 songs and 40 minutes, their second 2009 EP suffers the same pitfalls as the first without retaining any of the charm or foundations that made (M)orning a thoroughly enjoyable listen. It starts well enough: Good (A)fternoon and its stuttering drums open the record promisingly, offering an excellent instrumental fusion of quirky electronics and rock guitars before cutting to sound effects for its second half, not outstaying its welcome by a second. Unfortunately, the main problem (A)fternoon has is knowing when and when not to stop; while the opener could easily continue for another minute, repetitive tracks like The Fight Song (Crash And Burn) meander without purpose through plenty verses and choruses, unimpressive riffs and mediocre hooks. Over & Over is endearing and heartfelt for its first minute, but runs without any noteworthy transition or change in direction for over 5 in total, as Dave Elkins simply exists both lyrically and vocally. Though the other ingredients of Mae's successful signature sound are obviously still present, they play second string to poor songwriting and structure.
(A)fternoon is further proof that Mae see themselves as an experimental pop-rock band intent on the relatively unpredictable, but to put it bluntly, they need to get better at it before they disappear under a mess of uninspired and lazy pop-rock ideas. A solo midway through The Fight Song tells the full story, sounding both tedious and out of place; lengthy and uninteresting instrumental sections trip up any momentum the band manage to summon from the more intriguing passages, and better ideas like the hooks of In Pieces are few and far between. Elkins rarely sounds captivating, never once reaching the heights he did on The Everglow, and frequently coming across as a lyrical mess of trite storytelling and clichés; Communication fares worst as its basic principle is spoilt by clumsy and detached poetry (
when we search beyond ourselves you know we always learn), an anti-climactic hook and verses that sit above tired drums and stale guitar. Even the wordless chant that follows the bridge falls short and sounds like a token gesture.
Falling Into You is a genuinely astounding and beautiful instrumental track that comes out of nowhere to add value, but although most tracks carry a couple of moments that inspire hope, there's not a single other song out of 8 that isn't both unfulfilling and deeply flawed; the record ends with the fading tedium of Communication's outro and another sound effects track which has no music whatsoever but honestly feels like a relief, and that's the simplest way to explain (a)fternoon: it's honestly difficult to get through. The optimistic way to look at it is as an accurate depiction of the afternoon, a lazy period between morning and evening which passes by very slowly, but in reality, it's a very unfortunate and disappointing release from a band with hopefully much more to offer.
overall rating: 1.7
