This week I’m reviewing part one of a three part concept EP series by emo rockers Mae titled (m)orning. I’m a sucker for concept albums. Mae even donated all proceeds from this album to charity.
Artist: Mae {Dave Elkins (vocals, guitar), Zach Gehring (guitar), Jacob Marshall (drums, piano)}
Album: (m)orning
Year: 2009
Genre: Emo/Inidie/Pop
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Worth Your Time? Yes
Twitter Review: (m)orning is an incredibly well-crafted multi-layered genre mashing EP that should feel like a mess but flows together without any struggle.
Top 3 Tracks:
Things to Look For:
- Christian metaphors. Like all good art, what people see says more about them then the piece itself. Well I think this album is jam packed with Jesus. What I like even more is you could argue that this EP has no more Lord and Savior than your average grilled cheese sandwich. (Cheesus not withstanding)
- An eight minute and forty second magnum opus. I think The Fisherman Song is a lush complex masterpiece well deserving of the title. Just by itself, it elevates the album to the level of worth listening to. It even makes excellent use of dynamics. No wall of sound here.
- Channeling the greats… At time it felt like a Beatles album, sometimes Queen and other times U2… and still pulling it off beautifully.
Low Points: I’m really loving this album and routinely bobbed my head while listening to it so it’s hard for me to pick a low point. But I still have to find this album’s valley. I feel like the the ending and beginning tracks would be better suited for waiting to talk to customer support than rounding out the EP. But considering Mae’s previous albums and that this is a concept album, it’s quite possible that this was what they were going for.
Anything Else: I had this album for a long time but never gave it a good listen. And it surprised me in so many ways. So it really represents my goals for Project Lt. Morning which is to discover the gems scattered throughout my digital hoard. I have to listen to Destination Beautiful and The Everglow again but this might be my favorite Mae album overall. I also really need to add the other two EPs of the series: (a)fternoon and (e)vening. Like I said at the start, I’m a sucker for concept albums. (even if the results are sometimes disastrous)
Additional Links:
Project Lt. Morning 
I was wondering where you were getting these albums from to review but of course I should have known they’re yours. How are you picking them?
I have a 64GB microSD card in my BlackBerry Z10 which I use as my main music player at work. It’s packed nearly to the brim with music minus a couple hundred MBs. So whatever albums I had in there I’m reviewing in alphabetical order. I figure it will take about 10+ years. There’s lots of fun stuff that crops up because of alphabetical order like Led Zeppelin month or Britney Spears vs Method Man Battle of the Blackout albums.