Matt Mays & El Torpedo

For an artist with so many artistic ambitions as Mays, it’s a shame that he’s been caught up in the mediocre expectations of mainstream rock radio. These tendencies first became apparent on the Nova Scotia native’s previous self-titled effort with his band, and Terminal Romance shows little desire to veer from that formula. Like arguably his main rival, Sam Roberts, there seems to have been a burden placed on Mays to carry some kind of CanRock torch, leading to songs like "Tall Trees” that provide a marginal alternative for those who don’t want to listen to Nickelback at the cottage. But while it may be unfair to keep harping on the fact that Mays’s best work was as a member of the Guthries, it’s hard to dispute that his music since then has steadily erased his identity, to the point where Terminal Romance overall sounds like it could have been made by any faceless American band from the late ’70s. Every great singer-songwriter has had to do something radically different at some point to challenge both themselves and their audience, and, based on yet another lacklustre effort, Mays’s time to do this is rapidly approaching.