August 14, 2007 was a day that I had looked forward to for most of the year. It was the day that not one, but two of my top three albums of 2005 would be followed up by the excellent bands who made them - one being Eisley, and the other being Mae. Perhaps inevitably given the praise that I lavished on both Room Noises and The Everglow, both new albums were a bit of a letdown. You can go check out my review of Combinations to see why I wasn't as keen on Eisley's second indie-girlie-pop outing, because this space is reserved for the discussion of Mae's new disc, Singularity, which shares with the Eisley's album the designation of being a good, enjoyable, but not altogether phenomenal follow-up.

So what did Mae do the first time around that thrilled me so much, anyway? Actually, it was the second time around, since their debut Destination: Beautiful seemed packed with good ideas but cheaply produced and a bit all over the place. The Everglow, their second album which seemed to tell the story of a tragic young couple with a children's storybook as the framing device, was one of those albums that flowed beautifully and built up a good amount of narrative momentum. The band was tight, the guitar riffs memorable, the drumming exceptional, and the piano playing a crystal clear bright spot that made the band's sound stand out (despite the fact that every other rock band who wants to be cool seems to have prominent keyboards these days). I related to the story of a couple squandering their innocence and then finding a second chance at it when I looked at the lyrics closely, and even if I turned my brain off, I found song after song that rang in my eardrums long after the album was over. Even if their third album wasn't as conceptual, I figured Mae would still throw a bunch of guaranteed winners at me in the hook department. And they sort of did that on Singularity, but honestly, I can't really see the same level of depth or unity in this album. It's a bunch of pretty good pop/rock songs, for the most part.

Hmmm. Better make that "a bunch of pretty good pop/rock songs with a synthesizer". The trustworthy piano playing, once provided generously by keyboardist Rob Sweitzer, has been almost entirely replaced with the voice of its mechanical cousin. Hey, I can appreciate a band branching out and trying something different (though having a synth in your band is about as novel as having a piano - ever since The Killers hit it big, everyone seems to want to pretend it's the 80's again). Synths can work alongside strong guitar riffs and great vocals to produce compact pop songs with that extra zip that gets them stuck in your head even faster. And Mae's come up with a few of those. But I miss the emotion of the piano on several of these songs. I can't quite figure out why Sweitzer's so in love with the computerized version of his instrument. Combined with lyrics that seem to take more of a surface approach to the age-old subject of romantic love at times, it can cause Singularity to feel a bit too "been-there-done-that" to really work as a mainstream debut that puts the band's best strengths front and center. (Think Jimmy Eat World with a keyboard player.)

There's lots of good to be found here, of course - you might not tell Dave Elkins apart from a lot of rock-with-shades-of-emo singers out there, but he's a rock-solid vocalist who can play tough and sensitive with the greatest of ease. Drummer Jacob Marshall is just as impressive here as he was on The Everglow, and with a slightly more aggressive feel to some of these songs, he gets a little more of a chance to show off. No one in this band is a slouch, really - I'm just not as keen on the new sound. So when you're good at what you do, but it's not as engaging as what you used to do, that in my mind averages out to somewhere not too far above "ordinary".

Last Transmission I
If you rewind about a minute and a half from the beginning of track 1 (which of course you can't do on a computer), you'll find that the album actually starts with a brief, fast-paced rocker, in which the lyrics are apparently a doomed astronauts final plea, "Mission control, can you read me?" Kind of cheesy, but it sort of gives the album a hidden theme, which we'll revisit later.

Brink of Disaster
Night falls with no grace
I said I can do anything
But I can do anything wrong...
Singularity's true opening number is an instant classic for the band - not because it says anything all that profound, but simply because it's irresistible catchy fun, with a persistent synthesizer riff that totally sticks in the head right after the initial "smack" from the drums to lead things off, and a soaring chorus with a melody that's almost deliberately too reassuring for a message about one's own imminent doom. Dave Elkins seems to be well aware that he's headed down the path of destruction - "I'm out of control, asleep at the wheel" is how he describes it. The character he's playing in the song seems to insist that he knows what he's doing and can therefore get away with playing with fire. I love the metaphors about driving and theft in this song - it's all very Anberlin-esque, just with brighter background colors.

Crazy 8s
We sit and drink up on the cop car
Playing illegally, the boredom of fantasy, we're done
I've never, ever loved you so hard
But is that reality, we can't face the battle in the dark...
The one new song that I managed to catch when I saw the band live last year turns out to not disappoint in its studio version/ The somewhat "grinding" sound of the guitar riff at the beginning of the song makes me think of a car revving up, and the driving/racing analogies definitely carry over from the first song ("It's like we're running crazy eights 'round the track"). Dave is comparing a loss of innocence and an acceptance of sin to an out-of-control Vegas vacation, filled with gambling and less-than-legal activities. The protagonist knows the consequences of these things, and has to fight the urge to stop caring. He seems to hint that there's some lasting value to life beyond all of the hedonism (this is the favorite recurring topic on every Switchfoot album), but also feels that he is beyond help - "We're chasing Heaven as it fades into black, can't get it back, no we can't get it back". It all resolves to a chorus that is highly singable, but somewhat generic - "Could you stay with me tonight, and I'll make you believe one last time?" That's the only flaw in an otherwise memorable song that's sure to work well as a follow-up single.

Sometimes I Can't Make It Alone
She's staring into me with all she's got
Oh, what a bright thing!
She fills the space between with air to breathe
She got inside me ...
The title of this song may make it appear as if Mae's trying to mimic a highlight from U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (placement at track three and all), but thankfully, the similarities end there. This is a dense, muscular rocker that favors the guitar over the keyboards that are often prominent in Mae's songs - it inches them closer to being a typical modern rock band, but it's not a bad sound for them to play with here and there. I could take or leave the lyrics, which seem to be describing the fear of commitment and man's discovery that he can't resist the woman of his dreams despite his insistence on being independent. I really do enjoy trying to sing along to the mouthful of a chorus (they're three for three on indelible chorus melodies so far), but I find myself annoyed by the quick, stilted way of singing the song's title at the end of it. Still, the song is a tight little package that radio stations could easily learn to love without having to sacrifice any airtime (it's less than three minutes long).

Just Let Go
Wet your eyes with me, just for a while
I'll take you out of harm's way
And like these branches that shelter the rain
We can lay here in our own shade...
Now it's time for a flashback to the days of innocence. The electric guitar has an "almost acoustic" sort of strum to it, and we get a much-needed dose of a more "natural" piano sound, during this carefree pop song that pays tribute to an "old oak tree" where it seems like two lovers used to play together as children. Obviously there's a lot of sentimentality in play here, and at times this gives way to massive cliches (the pre-chorus of "Are you falling for me like I'm falling for you?" and the backing vocal singing "You're so far away!" are the biggest offenders in this department), but the song still has its charms, and it's a nice break from Mae's usual sound.

On Top
I'd say I'm the luckiest one you know
So why'd you even go in the first place?
Very strong drumming and a "windy" sort of synth sound characterize this upbeat number about being on top of... well, I'm not sure what. (It's much like The Killers' song of the same title in that regard.) While it's an upbeat, breezy tune, with another memorable chorus melody (I really love the vocal harmonies as they sing "On top!" at the end of the chorus), I feel like its rhythm stumbles often, in its hurried attempts to jump forward to the next line of lyrics. The unintentional humor inherent in the line "I could only give it to you when you were on top" doesn't help matters much - somewhere in Mae's audience, there's a 12-year-old with a smart remark to offer in response to that one.

Waiting
I tried walking with you in mind
But looking down, I saw my feet were tied
Got to thinking how easy it would be
Within the fear and chains being a part of me...
This one's the low point of the record for me - not that it's particularly egregious; it's just kind of "there". The same elements that characterize most of the rock songs on this record are present - full-blast electric guitar, zippy synth, somewhat intricate drumming - and it's because of precisely these things that it gets lost amidst better songs. The chorus is my biggest beef, since it complains about "Always waiting for my ride to pick me up." What, are we back in high school waiting for our mothers to come get us after the track meet or something? It sounds like there's a deeper analogy about feeling left behind as others grow up and move on, but Mae's recurring problem with lyrical ambiguity isn't giving me much insight here.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Screaming, the end is near
So rest in peace, 'cause we're the ones that put ourselves here
Water rises, now hold your breath and count down
This ship of sinners and saints, all just waiting to drown...
Mae pays tribute to their home state of Virginia in a song named after its motto (which is Latin for "Death to Tyrants" - now there's a great title if I've ever seen one). This one is perhaps the most intense rocker on the album - you'll still be singing along to the furious cry of "All hands on deck, we're going down!", so it's not like the song's too hard-rocking to be poppy or anything. (I don't think Mae's capable of not being poppy, and that is not an insult.) Dave's got much more of a vicious edge to his voice in this one, and the band seems to be having a lot more fun playing off of each other, especially in Rob's case as his synths navigate the rhythmic obstacle course laid out by Jacob. The song is simultaneously playful (mostly due to the music) and despondent (mostly due to the lyrics) - Dave seems to be convinced that he and his crew are on a sinking ship, the situation brought about by their own misdeeds. Maybe it's a result of the carelessness described in the first few songs.

Release Me
We cease to fight this tension
That ignites us here in the dark
'Cause tension causes friction
And this friction leads to sparks...
Despite being more of a ballad, this song glides along so effortlessly that it doesn't feel like the band has slowed things down too much - they've just lightened up the music a bit. The band just shimmers on this one, and Rob's back to more of a natural piano sound, which helps the song greatly. In many ways, it feels like a lost chapter from The Everglow, with its metaphors about lightning and thunder and rain, and a great sense of anticipation about where a special night with a lover might lead, seeming to pick up where "The Ocean" left off. But the invitation to "release me" starts to sound less like a request for emotional healing, and more like an awkward metaphor for sex, as the song moves forward. It gets positively uncomfortable, and yet quite riveting due to the fantastic building of musical tension during the bridge. You're just waiting for the floodgates to break because this guy can't seem to hold back much longer. When he muses, "We should take down the curtains now and make blankets here on the floor", there's just no re-interpreting the song back into safe territory. He wants her, and the consequences be damned. It kind of fits with the foolhardiness presented in some of the songs at the beginning of the album, but I'll be surprised if I don't hear someone complaining about how this band (which doesn't identify itself as "Christian", but whose albums are sold in the Christian market) is supposedly encouraging kids to go out and carelessly lose their virginity or something. I don't think anyone who's gonna do it really needs a song to be their excuse, but it any event, this song is really interesting when juxtaposed with the last album's "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making".

Telescopes
It reminds me of a reoccurring nightmare with a theme
I'm stuck inside the TV, like a pixilated dream...
This one's a grinding, distorted mid-tempo rocker that perhaps tries a bit too hard with its cumbersome analogies. Get a load of this humdinger: "I never took the time with you to reflect and refract. My subject took attention from your predicated fact." On the one hand, at least it's not as generic as some of the other lyrics on this album, but on the other hand, it's just plain awkward. The music is tons o' fun, though, with the drums giving everyone cues as to how to bang their heads during Rob's synth breakdown. I can just picture this being a concert highlight, as he jams away on the keyboards, bald head banging away, with a big smile on his face. (He seems to be the most enthusiastic one on stage during a Mae concert.)

Rocket
It's strange when I feel the change
I remember that anything's possible
You're the same, you take me away
I won't hesitate, or I'll crash and burn and fade...
Pure, unadulterated fun in 6/8 time! That's the most succinct way to sum up this song, with its grinding, crashing, and still unabashedly poppy approach to seriously rocking out. It won't take a "rocket scientist" to figure out that this one's about the natural high that you get when you fall in love. I suppose the analogy of flying into outer space gives us a vague connection to the ad hoc central theme that I've decided the album sort of has. But really, there's no need to overanalyze. Just sing along to the swaying melody, bang your head back and forth to the thrashing drums, and thrill to the sound of crunchy electric guitars playing musical ping-pong with geeky synthesizers.

Home
I can see it in the symmetry
It's what it was really always meant to be
The singularity is clear from a distance...
This song is a bit of an oddity that stands out from the pack by virtue of its restless, shifting rhythm, which sounds like it goes from 6/4 to 4/4 and back again, often in a slick manner that takes a few seconds to register. It's hard to pull off such a shift without making a song drag or feel awkward, so I'll give credit where credit is due (they occasionally showed a talent for this on The Everglow as well). This is the song that references the album's title - the "singularity" appears to be the "home" that the protagonist is headed for, which is an interesting concept because it's basically the boundary of a black hole. Does that lead into some sort of spiritual realm, or just back into a lover's arms? The analogy has a lot of potential, but once again, the lyrical ambiguity threatens to rob the song of its impact. I love the piano in this one, though. (I seem to always love the piano - maybe the synths have led me to not take it for granted as easily.) I also love how the song gets more layered and intense as it goes. It's probably the least radio-friendly thing on the album, but its emotional climax is a beautiful one.

Reflections
Where does the physical meet with the Spiritual?
Is this the typical question?
Down below and up above
It looks the same, so I'm not sure of anything...
The record winds to a close with this slow, majestic number, driven by a neat little roll-stop rhythm from the drums. As finales go, I prefer this one to "The Sun and the Moon", which wasn't bad, but it dragged on too long. This one's over six minutes, but it doesn't feel like it wears out its welcome (at least, not before some seriously wacky and warped noises come in during the last minute or so). Dave's trying to reach back in time for something that he can't seem to get back - perhaps a dead relationship, perhaps some sort of spiritual enlightenment. The song is definitely a slow-burner, which doesn't build to the expected climax, instead choosing to slowly roll forward into the dark unknown until those weird sounds at the end come along and we all get sucked into the big black void.

Last Transmission II
It's so peculiar, this universe
No matter how big or small
And out of nothing comes this thing we share
And I want it all...
After four minutes of radio silence on track thirteen, along comes this long (and ridiculously repetitive) hidden track, which bears no musical resemblance to "track zero", taking a more relaxed, "layered pop" sort of approach as it tells us that the last transmission is love. It's explained with grand, sweeping analogies about the nature of the universe, and presented with just about as much lyrical bombast as any number of self-indulgent prog-rock bands. No prog tendencies to the music here - the layered vocals are quite nice, as are the simple acoustic guitar chords that open the song, but after a while it begins to feel like they didn't know when to turn the tape off. I didn't need three minutes of "Love, it's the last transmission". As an astute friend pointed out, it's the type of lyric that The Flaming Lips might be able to get away with, but only because they'd have been able to do something more psychedelic with the music to effectively distract everyone.

It is amazing to me how hard it was to write this review, and how much I procrastinated in getting it done. It's not that Singularity is a terrible record. It just gets hard for me to write about pop/rock records that do fewer unique things from track to track, even more so than it is to write about records by far less capable bands that jump all over the place and fail in many of their experimental attempts. What can I say, I like it when songs are written with the intent that each one will demand attention in its own way, and Mae's got at least 3 or 4 here that haven't distinguished themselves in my mind despite how relentlessly I've listened to this record. The good news is that I'm still planning on listening to it a lot now that the review is done and I don't have to study it as deeply - it honestly holds up better when I'm just putting it on for fun and not to get some deep meaning out of it. That wouldn't be a problem, if I didn't know that Mae was capable of creating records with deeper meaning that encouraged closer study, like The Everglow did, and if I didn't recognize a few repeated themes that Mae was trying to work into the songs this time around. Sometimes you've got to pick a topic and go for it. Either it's the simplicity of falling in love, or it's a spiritual experience of floating off into the darkest reaches of space and finding your soul echoed in the deep void. That's not to say that you can't write about both, but a little more specificity could probably go a long way for Mae, if they want to continue to strike that emotional chord with their listeners.

ALBUM WORTH:
Last Transmission I $.50
Brink of Disaster $1.50
Crazy 8s $1.50
Sometimes I Can't Make It Alone $1
Just Let Go $1
On Top $.50
Waiting $0
Sic Semper Tyrannis $1.50
Release Me $1
Telescopes $1
Rocket $1.50
Home $1.50
Reflections $1
Last Transmission II $0
TOTAL: $13.50

Band Members:
Dave Elkins: Lead vocals, guitar
Zach Gehring: Lead guitar
Rob Sweitzer: Keyboards, backing vocals
Mark Padgett: Bass
Jacob Marshall: Drums

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving