Album Review: Forever Halloween by The Maine

The fourth album from Tempe, Arizona alt-rockers the Maine, Forever Halloween finds the band continuing to refine their sound, a process that started back in 2010 with Black & White. Striking just the right balance between melancholy and wistfulness, the album evokes nostalgia without feeling overly sentimental as it takes a contemplative stroll down memory lane with a city-meets-ountry sound that feels inspired by the more pop-leaning moments of bands like Wilco and the Old 97's. Fans of the Maine are going to have an easy time falling in love with this one, but anyone looking for a new slice of that (relatively) old alt-rock sound should give Forever Halloween a chance to get its hooks into them.

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If you hear it straight from the Maine, it almost sounds like they sold out with their debut album. Indeed, with those early AltPress hits at the end of the aughts, the Maine may very well have been a boy band that just so happened to write their own songs and play their own instruments. They played well to the younger SuicideGirls crowd, brought in the angsty tweens, and despite their swooping, edgy haircuts, still managed to be painfully inoffensive, the band still standing out from their peers due to the fact that they could write a pop hook better than most.

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