THE MAINE - XOXO: FROM LOVE AND ANXIETY IN REAL TIME
The Maine’s 8th album is a triumphant concoction of the collective feelings we as a world have experienced in the last year. We have experienced, as the name suggests, great amounts of love with intense bouts of anxiety to bring us down to reality.
The Maine’s 8th album is a triumphant concoction of the collective feelings we as a world have experienced in the last year. We have experienced, as the name suggests, great amounts of love with intense bouts of anxiety to bring us down to reality.
Despite the fact that there is an underlying darkness in this album, it brings you to the sunnier times, the warmer times where potentially things didn’t feel as intense. The 32 minutes of this album are light, enjoyable and each song has the ability to stop you in your tracks to listen the combination of exciting sounds.
The lead single ‘sticky’ is fun and as the title highlights, it’s so sticky that it definitely gets stuck in your head with the rhythmic, light yet gritty, guitar track. The guitar sound and production throughout this album is consistent and clearly each detail has been well thought of because each song is a puzzle piece.
John O’Callaghan’s vocals allude to Matty Healy’s vocals from The 1975 and it’s like a game of ‘spot the 1975 influence’ throughout this album because as one listens, it shifts back into 2014 where the 1975’s album was everywhere. It’s questionable whether this is a deliberate ode to the British band, however, the British indie influence is definitely seeping in and lurking into the tracks.
XOXO is an excellent anthology of songs for The Maine to add to their mantlepiece.
Aylin Aliev
★★★★☆