Arizona rockers The Maine dropped their fourth record this week. It’s called Forever Halloween, and it’s worth checking out — especially this video for the single ‘Love and Drugs.’
Visually, the video is a marvel of simplicity. In a time of overstimulation, it’s common practice to dazzle viewers with big effects or hyperactive smash cuts. But this one succeeds by doing just the opposite. The voyeuristic nature of watching a girl put on headphones and collapse into bed is weirdly compelling all by itself. Add in the stark, eye-catching set design that doubles as a billboard on which to project the clever lyrics, and almost immediately it’s hard to look away.
As for the music: You can tell that the boys of The Maine still just kids, but I’m a sucker for straight-ahead, no-frills guitar pop nuggets like this. ‘Love and Drugs’ shares a popular flaw with a lot of other great contemporary songs in that it’s 25% longer than it should be (why do so many bands take terrific 3-minute songs and stretch them into 4-minutes?).
Still, their music sounds like the snotty post-grad bastard child of the very same ’90s alternative bands that I used to love. In that way, it’s a bit like finding new music that comes packaged with its own nostalgia.
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Sharpening Pencils 