ATP! Album Review: The Maine - Forever Halloween (Deluxe Edition)

Let’s face it, re-releases can often feel a little fruitless. Some albums are best left alone, especially when they don’t need anything else added to them to make them more amazing, such as The Maine’s Forever Halloween. However, bands that re-release their albums could learn a lot from The Maine, because the five songs the quintet added to their 2013 release are the best five songs they’ve released to date.

For those of you that don’t know, we loved Forever Halloween a lot. Like, a lot a lot. There’s no reason to rehash how much we enjoyed it, because at this point every review we post on The Maine sounds a lot like a love letter to the band - Dear The Maine, we love you. xoxo, Alter The Press - so let us just jump straight into the five new tracks.

While the new songs don’t necessarily fit with the feeling of Forever Halloween, they do have a life all their own. This is a version of The Maine we haven’t been acquainted to yet. One that pulls the pop catchiness of their first EP and studio album into the rock sound they’ve cultivated today and it’s created something magical. So magical, in fact, that the only thing we don’t like about this rerelease is the fact that these new tracks didn’t get a release all to themselves.

While we can’t decide on a favorite of the songs, we have managed to whittle it down to two standout tracks, ‘So Criminal’ and ‘Ice Cave,’ coincidentally enough the first and last tracks of the additional songs. The former is the perfect example of the blending of new and old that the band has managed to create while the latter is the grittiest we’ve ever heard the quintet get. Both are tinged with dirty vocals, copious amounts of guitars and an energy that is tangible. While neither sounds alike, and the mood of both songs are completely different, they are a beginning and end that will have this reviewer putting the five songs on repeat.

There are some people who questioned why The Maine decided to head out on Warped Tour again, having shed their Warped image, and these five songs are the answers to those that challenged the decision. Maybe they aren’t punk, or pop-rock, but they certainly are the rock band of the future and any critic will be won over by these tracks. They’re perfect material for live shows, and especially perfect for the traveling music festival. To be completely honest, if the short set they’ll get consists of only these songs, we’ll be pretty content.

In past reviews we’ve run on The Maine, we’ve always questioned how they could possibly outdo themselves. We should stop doing that, because by this point they’ve proven that they will always bring something great to the table. We will, however, wait not-so-patiently for what they have waiting for us up their sleeves. Until we get our hands on that, we’ll have Forever Halloween, especially these five additional songs, on repeat.

5/5

Victoria Patneaude

Forever Halloween (Deluxe Edition) will be available digitally on June 17th via Eighty One Twenty Three.