Style: indie jam rock; compare to Fair, Death Cab for Cutie, Deas Vail
Top tracks: “Over and Over,” “In Pieces,” “Falling Into You”
After a Tooth & Nail launch and one offering on Capitol Records, Mae (Multisensory Aesthetic Experience) re-emerged with a monthly song release throughout 2009 that evolved into the EP trilogy: (M)orning, (A)fternoon, and (E)vening. (A)fternoon embraces its indie freedom with surging, tempo-changing sagas like a brainy, emo jam band. Hints of math rock groove with pop sensibilities around relational struggle and reconciliation. The experimental ambition is mostly refreshing when undulating between spiraling guitar and an ebb of, say, quiet piano or glockenspiel. “Falling Into You” is an unexpectedly tender instrumental track. But the band stumbles on two of eight tracks, which are half or all ambient sound without music.
Copyright © 2010 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
