Mae – Destination: Beautiful

Destination: Beautiful is the debut album from the young quintet from Norfolk, Va., Mae. The 11 track album was released this past February (2003) through the Seattle based label, Tooth & Nail Record.

There are probably some questions which are coming to your mind right now if you’ve never heard of Mae before. What do they play? What type of music? The answer is that is somewhat hard to describe. With songs normally reaching over 5 minutes in length, they play a keyboard based, melodic, emo type of music. Who do they sound like is probably another question you find yourself asking. Well think ofSomething Corporate, but slowed down a notch or two.

They keyboard harmonies by Rob Sweitzer are spectacular, especially at the end of Sun; where they have a 30-45 second solo. The solo really ends the song off perfectly and grabs your attention no matter what you are doing. The vocals by Dave Gimmenez are smooth and passionate and goes perfectly with the music.

Unfortunately, the album does seem to lack a certain punch to it. It is fairly slow for most of the album, never really experimenting on anything new. A couple songs they do pick it up a bit. Speeding the pace up (to just over three minutes instead of the regular 5!), and just making the songs a bit harder, turning it into something which you are capable of taping your feet to. If they had a couple more of these tracks spread throughout the album, it would probably be more enjoyable. But otherwise it is mostly just background music. The type of music you would play when you have guests over and want to keep a gentle conversation going.