The Maine - XOXO: From Love and Anxiety In Real Time (July 9, 2021) Album • Page 34

They just released an album last year.

 

Exactly - fucking slackers lol

 

Some of the merch from the pop up shop will be online later today. It was mentioned in an Instagram live but it wasn’t said what pieces. The 8123 Instagram has some videos of the merch on their stories.

 

Liner Notes (July 10th, 2021)

At this point, it’s a cliche to talk about how anticipating a new album from The Maine is not something past Jason would have ever expected. But this run they’ve been on since American Candy is really something special. Their latest is an instantly accessible, instant earworm delight. The perfect mix of summer joy with its only fundamental flaw being, in my opinion, that it’s too short. Early favorites include “If Your Light Goes Out,” “Anxiety in Real Time,” “Sticky,” and “April 7th.” My decision to not listen to the singles or overplay any of them really paid off with getting an album that feels whole and new. I see no reason why this won’t be a massive staple for the next few months. And while I don’t think it has the same lasting power that something like Lovely Little Lonely did (which remains my favorite from the band by a significant margin), I have a stronger first impression here than I did with You Are Ok. It feels a little bit like the older brother to American Candy, and it’s the kind of album I feel like I could recommend to just about anyone. If you have been putting off giving these guys a chance for any reason or because of what you remember from the early 2000s, I highly recommend you stop and go give this a chance. At the very least, it’s a record you could throw on at any get-together in the backyard and step back to watch the group start nodding along. And it’s inevitable that someone is going to ask you, “hey, who is this?” Hello, record of the summer; thank you for showing up just in time.

 

For anyone who missed out on the vinyl, they put this up today. Limited to 250 copies online. https://shop.81twentythree.com/collections/themaine/products/xoxo-vinyl-black-variant

 

I just wanna add my love for Dirty, Pretty, Beautiful as one of the catchiest, get-your-ass-up-and-dance song they’ve ever written. A lovely album. I wish I didn’t hear the singles before it came out - their albums are too short to have heard 40% before it drops!

 

No High Forever slander!

 

Pretty much the kings of summer music at this point. They're on such an incredible run of albums at this point

 

Pretty wild that since AC, YAO is my least favorite and I really like that album. Impressive.

 

I’m the opposite: I like AC and YAO but can’t get into this record aside from Face Towards The Sun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Urghhhh looks like I missed out again!

 

You Are Ok seems severely underrated here. To me none of their other records come close

 

For sureeeee. Still think Sticky might be better than anything else on either record, but YAO has at least 4 or 5 songs that are better than the second best song on the new one.

 

I thought it was universally loved until I’ve followed this thread

 

You Are OK is their best, followed by LLL.

 

Saying it’s someone’s least favorite of a incredible four album run isn’t really a dig on that album as much as it praise if their hot streak imo

 

Hot take: Forever Halloween doesn’t get enough praise.

 

Same, I’ve seen it lower than I expected on a lot of people’s rankings in this thread

 

I love that album but the first half to me is so significantly better than the second half. But what a positive, affirming album it is.

 

Maybe it's because I've not been in a great mood lately, or the fact that I've overplayed the singles, but I'm kind of feeling "meh" on it as a whole. The last 4 tracks are all that seem to be grabbing me at the moment, with Pretender at the forefront.

That said, I still bought the album and will continue giving them my money for merch, tickets, etc., for as long as they continue to be a band, if not soley for the fact that they've brought so much joy to my life when I've needed it most, and have continuously treated their fans better than any band I've ever been a fan of.

Okay I'm gonna edit this to say that maybe I feel the way I do because of the long roll-out. I think they released far too many singles- like half an album's worth of singles.

 

It gets a ton of praise from their stans. People flip their shit when the band dig into FH songs live, not to mention the b-sides.

 

Y'all should stop getting caught up so much in rollout cycles so you can enjoy great albums like this without turning your brains into pretzels.

This record is killer. Took them a few years to incorporate those 1975 touches but they're very welcome. What a great run they're on.

 

Yeah...I don't know. I truly never have let rollout periods hinder my enjoyment of records much in the past. This was far too drawn-out, though, in my opinion. I personally can't fully enjoy a record that, as a whole, I've already heard nearly half of months before its release. That's definitely a "me" problem, though; my self control is awful.

 

Honest to god, I've been so much happier as a music fan since I've stopped listening to advance singles.

If I love the song, I've deprived myself of the best part of my first listen.

If I don't, I've now colored my impression of the record and gone in with a preconception.

 

Yeah I definitely wish I had come into this album without listening to anything but my self control was not there on this roll out due to the time.