Mae – “The Overview” • Page 2

Well that's kind of the thing though, isn't it? Everyone wants to compare everything since the Everglow to the Everglow and nothing lives up to that expectation because of it. If Destination: Beautiful had come out after the Everglow people would have probably complained that it wasn't as good as the Everglow. In my opinion, the Everglow is a great album but it's highly overrated. Singularity was shit on because every one expected the Everglow 2 and that's not what they got. I'm not saying the overview is great but I think it's a decent song that doesn't deserve the flak it's getting

 

Usually, I’d get behind this - it does sometimes feel like people romanticize the Everglow and ignore how solid the rest of their discography is. I love Singularity! And all of the EPs! And D:B is my favorite mae record! 99% of the time, I’d agree!

But this is that 1%. This song, compared to anything else in their discography, is just super, super strange and weird and off because of those dumb vocals. People don’t listen to mae to hear Dave Elkins try to (very poorly) imitate the dude from Say Anything; Elkin’s distinctive voice is one of the first things anyone notices about mae, and in this song, it’s gone, and replaced with something laughable. This just takes what the band has always done well, and throws it away for the sake of being different or artsy.

This is mae purposely being fundamentally different than what they’ve always been. If you’re a big mae fan, it’s definitely reasonable to say, ‘what is this, and why is this not vocally in any way like the mae I’ve listened to since 2003?’

 

Yuck.

 

No it's not. I'm a big mae fan and I'm glad they decided to try something new. It's not like they're the first band to try something different. I'm not even saying it's a great song. I understand not being a huge fan of it even but to say that a band shouldn't step out of the box is fucking silly. It seems to me that this album was extremely refreshing to them and if a song like this out of how many? 12? 14? Is what they want to do then props to them for at least trying something new. You're basically trying to pigeonhole them and say "I expect you to make music only like (insert the Everglow, destonation:Beautiful, singularity, morning afternoon evening, etc)"

 

I agree. This is not *bad becasue it's not the Everglow*. It's just plain bad. If it were a brand new band with no history, I would have stopped the track halfway through verse 1.

 

Pre-chorus is cool.
Rest of the song is not cool.

If they would have just looped "How do I get back home, get back home..." for 2 minutes, this song would be good.
But they didn't, and this song is not good.

 

No, I’m expecting Dave Elkins to sound like Dave Elkins. You can try something different (and if you’re a big mae fan, you know they’ve done that on literally every release. Singularity sounds nothing like Morning, which sounds nothing like Everglow, which sounds nothing like Afternoon, etc.) and still sound like yourself. If mae decided to try to rap, people would rightfully say ‘what’s this? Who’s this?’ If mae decided to be start screaming, the reaction would be the same. Instead, on this song, Dave isn’t even singing for half of it. That’s not ‘pigeonholing’ anyone. That’s saying, ‘I sure like it better when the singer I like sings.’

 

Nobody is saying that they can't try different things. We are in no position to stop their creative expression or their creative process. But we are in a position to comment on it when the efforts and experimentation are bad. And this is bad.

 

Says you

 

Well, good thing this was only a test.

all jokes aside, I like it a lot.

 

Sounds to me like you want them to do what you expect them to do instead of what they want to do. Agree to disagree.

 

I usually align with popular opinion so I've kept this on repeat waiting for it to hit me that this is a bad song. That didn't happen. Instead, I have it on repeat because I freaking love this. I understand why people hate it. Those spoken vocals are goofy but I think they're...kind of a blast? His talking sounds more like an extension of his singing voice than proper spoken word so it's not even all that jarring to me. I don't know. Not surprised some hate it, but surprised the vast majority do. This is a good song.

 

This is the correct take.

 

Thank you sir. I can’t wait to say this song at the top of my lungs.

 

If "say" was intentional and not a typo, that's frikking hilarious

 

I listened again after we discussed it. The song still doesn't click for me. I agree with everyone who says the pre-chorus is the only piece of the song that really jives. And I think the aspect of that first verse that really kills it for me is not just Dave's delivery but the very cliche day/night/light/fire/flame lyrics. That stuff kills me. Like, you might know well that the amount of times "dark" and "darkness" get mentioned on newer releases by Andrew Peterson and Dustin Kensrue threaten to ruin those albums for me.

 

And you’re still crazy on at least one of those opinions. ;)

 

Woooooooow. I would have never expected Mae to drop anything this flagrantly horrible. If I don’t feel a song usually won’t even bother posting about it but seriously how did that make it past demoing? How??

 

Guys, it's really not that bad. I dig it. Gives me a Nada Surf vibe.

 

At the 55 second mark it sounds just like the Fresh Prince theme song:

“Started making trouble in my neighborhood!”

 

I've given this several tries and I just can't get past the "I'm a little boy in a school play" delivery of the verses. There is a quality about it that reminds me of "I'm a Hustler" by Lonely Island.

 

Well. That was not was I was expecting. I'll reserve my thoughts until I hear it in the context of the album.

That guitar tone reminds me a bit of parts of the Fisherman Song (Their best song for me)

 

lol sorry Mae but man the vocals here are so awful

 

Yeah it sounds like Owl City sat down and said "what if I wrote a song for Make Yourself" holy bad