Mae

A sugar-coated version of the kind of emo originally purveyed by pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate, the music contained on The Everglow falls in line with similar artists such as the Rocket Summer and Jealous Sound. While the band have clearly put substantial effort into their packaging, supplementing their record with a gorgeous set of liner notes, a lack of musical originality holds back what is probably a great record trying to get out. Attempting to bring all their songs together by making the record into a story, replete with a spoken-word prologue and epilogue, Mae have clearly put substantial effort into separating themselves from the pop-emo pack. Yet their actual sound leaves something to be desired; it is polished and well-arranged, but lacking the spark needed to raise this record above the crowd.