Not hearing enough at all about Green. You just know it’s gonna rip when they play it live!!! Dammit I love that song, especially as an opener.
It’d be dead last on a ranking of AC -> Now for me, but that’s really more a testament to how much of a hot streak they’ve been on.
This band knows what they are and their stuff always scratches an itch. Very grateful to have found them, through this very site, when YAO came out.
Honestly, it’s solid from front to back but echoing the thread that there isn’t anything that is making me want to have just one song on repeat. Definitely need more time with it.
I’m digging this a lot more than the consensus here but I like it more after each listen. I’ll be in the car for a few hours tomorrow so looking forward to listening again.
I will say that listening to this with the windows down yesterday afternoon felt like a whole different experience
Chicago was insane. Sold out Salt Shed which is listed at 3600 capacity. Outside of The Maine being amazing, that venue is special. Converted actual salt shed. Really unique and amazing set up.
Maybe it's me and my brain's eternal struggle to fully capture lyrics/vocals until numerous listens, but I've found the combination of John's unique voice and the mix means his vocals struggle to break through on a few tracks. Anyone else feel the same, or is it just me and my weird brain/undiagnosed ADHD struggling to fixate on certain songs within elements?
We discussed this a bit earlier in the thread. I think the mix is not doing the album any favors. It’s fuzzy and a bit muted. John already has a sort of mumble to his singing sometimes, and on this record the combination of that and the mix means it’s buried further, and sometimes actually difficult to understand what he’s saying at all. That being said, I like this record as a whole and it has grown on me since Friday. It’s missing that punch for me, even on the songs I like (Green, 3:31, Half A Spark), but I love this band dearly and will continue to listen to this all summer long.
This has also grown on me a lot already, I’m very surprised by how fast my opinion on it is shifting. I think over the summer I’ll be listening to this a lot. 3:31 and And Then are probably my favorites but even the singles are doing a lot more for me after several full album playthroughs.
Also sounds la lot better through good speakers/headphones. My audio on my sony buds is tinkered to have vocals clearer so that helps vocals on this album pop. If you use Spotify, make sure to turn volume normalization off in settings under playback. Makes a world of difference!
I couldn’t really be happier with this. It just does enough different to feel fresh, while still very much feeling like the Maine. Feels like yet another very special album from them. I don’t know how they do it. Seeing them at the release show Friday definitely only helped solidify that. It really did feel like a special night - as a fan, but also you could just tell it was special to them. Energy in the room was electric. The only complaint I can somewhat get behind is John being a little hard to understand, but doesn’t come close to ruining anything and seems like an intentional choice to decenter him a bit. Green, 3:31, and Half a Spark are my favorites of the unreleased ones, and are all like jaw droppingly good.