Mae- (m)orning

Mae is a band burnt out. Now, when I say “burnt out”, I don’t mean their music is suffering from lack of ideas and music ability. I mean they are burnt out on the way the music business is run. After having been through the major label ringer with their last “flop” of an album, Singularity, Mae decided that they needed to make music for something more than just themselves. So, without the backing of a label, they decided to team up with Habitat for Humanity to raise money to build a house, through their music. They did this by recording and releasing songs each month (1 song per month) online for digital download. The only thing the consumer had to do was pay a dollar that would go to Habitat for Humanity and they would get the song.

The physical release of these songs is found on Mae’s new EP, (m)orning. This EP shows that pop music does not need to have walls. It can roam free on it’s own and stand its ground. Mae has made a collection of songs that I like to refer to as “progressive pop”. It never stays in one place, and like most pop music, when you think you can guess what will happen next, Mae throws you a curve ball (like the instrumental “Two Birds” or the Third Eye Blind-inspired riffing in “Boomerang”). Songs on this EP have this remarkable ability to stay catchy but still be 8 minutes long [see “The Fisherman Song (We All Need Love)”]. It seems a little bit ingenious for them to do something this ambitious. And to some it might not seem as ambitious, but if you look at the world of pop/rock music today, most bands are playing within the confines of a verse and a chorus. But Mae is using the music to tell stories and take pop music to a place it doesn’t normally go. Experimenting with time signatures and layers upon layers of different instruments (see “A Melody, A Memory”), this EP is one of the most zealous pop records you will ever hear.

Mae have never really been one for convention, but it helps that their unconventional nature is not only taking them to new heights musically but it is taking to places they would have never thought possible with the partnership of Habitat for Humanity. Not only are they helping the stale scene of pop music of today but they are using is for a great purpose, to change people’s lives. The combination of the two turned out one of my favorite records of the year and one that will change your thinking on pop music.