Mazes
Ores & Minerals
FatCat Records
(CD/LP/DL)
Out Now
As my
Louder Than War bio says – “Everything deserves one listen, but, not
necessarily a second”. This album almost
fell into that category. It’s not that I
dislike it as such, it’s just that there are a few very fundamental flaws that
make it an ‘Ok’ album.
The Mazes
sound is pretty original, and there are some good tunes on this album, but, it
suffers from some very poor production.
It’s a shame, as the band have done it themselves. Several of the songs sound like live demo
versions – if the group intended this, then congratulations to them on
succeeding. If they didn’t, then they
need to maybe consider getting themselves a producer. The second thing that becomes apparent is
that Mazes sometimes don’t know when a track could lose its appeal. Opener, Bodies, is case in point. It has a nice catchy feel and a great little
melody, though the chorus is sometimes difficult to pick out, but, the problem
comes in the length at almost seven minutes.
To be honest, it’s maybe three minutes too much and it becomes a little
pretentious, which is a shame.
I’m aware
that I may come across as having a real jab at this album, but, bear with me
please. The wonderfully titled Dan Higgs
Particle has a line that makes me squirm – “Please I wanna go home, I will not
cry, I will not moan”, a Country-style guitar and a decent enough track, but,
it sounds flat. A track in desperate
needs of mixing, but, something slightly amiss.
Significant Bullet is barely a minute long, an instrumental that only
serves to hold its predecessor into Ores & Minerals with an initial
drumbeat not dissimilar to Enola Gay.
Some addictive guitar work and a good hook. I played this album without looking at the
track listing and it makes sense that this is the title track. A cohesive piece, very catchy and one that
grows and grows - moments of Visage (Fade To Grey) perhaps but a second guitar
solo that again is a little too long.
All in all, a good track and probably one of the album highlights.
The opening
to Sucker Punched whilst similar to Slight Return by The Bluenotes begins yet
another pretty good pop song with some good vocals and a great melody, which
like Bodies, you’ll find yourself singing over and over. This is potentially one of those tracks you
could look book at in a few years and regale how good it was.
Delancey
Essex has a folksy feel, it’s not overcomplicated and the length of the song it
just right. The Rocky movie bassline
goes through Bite which again is nice enough but doesn’t seem to move on, again
it’s a little bit too much and could do with cropping by a minute or so.
I was
reminded of several acts whilst listening to the album – The Beatles, Pink
Floyd, Lennon and even Rush who seemed to have an influential presence on Jaki,
not only with a Geddy Lee esque vocal but also with some guitars akin to the
2112 album. Unfortunately, I was never a
big fan of Rush but there’s something about this track that’s pretty
endearing. Leominster is like a piano
outtake, but has a really original and interesting recording of a female voice
at the end which lifts the track again.
The album
ends with probably the best two tracks on the album – Skulking and Slice. Brilliant guitar solo on the former and cracking
guitar sound towards the end. I really
enjoyed Skulking, and to be honest, it’s probably why I gave the album more
listening. Slice has a line that made me
smile – “The USA isn’t great, it’s ok”.
Almost waiting for a chorus to kick in, it’s a perfect album closer.
In short,
Mazes show significant promise. They
write some very addictive tunes, and, the album has the potential to be
very good. For me, there’s that little something missing
somewhere that makes it feel as though it’s still incomplete. Sorry lads, but the production really does
let this down, but, I’m sticking with you because I think there’s something
very special coming.
Songs 8/10
– Production 6/10.
You can
stream the full album here.
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