You head to the concession to get a drink, and a chance to rest from the strong sounds of the previous Act. But, like all things that come up, they must come down. You rest for a bit, and then return to your seat in row F, right as it returns.
What happens next? You’ll see soon enough…
We cut back to 2024. I discovered The Maine’s seventh album around October 2023, and its orchestral analogue some time later. As the poles start to warm back up into spring and I receive my vinyl copy of The Maine’s Self Titled, we return back into their music.
As such, to celebrate the band’s sweet sixteen (now seventeen), we continue our look back on four of their albums, track by track, and see what makes them click to this day.
This is Part V of VIII of The Maine Sweet 16/17 Special, and today we continue our look into quite a set: You Are OK.
You Are OK, Act II: The Fall
Rating: 97 (35*)
You Are OK is the seventh full-length album by American rock band The Maine, released on March 29, 2019. “Numb Without You” was released as the lead single and “My Best Habit” and “Broken Parts” were the last two singles released from the album.
Today, we’ll look at the second half, dubbed Act II: The Fall. So, let’s begin.
Interlude 5:
“Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they’ll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already.” — Jean de La Bruyère, as stated in In Darkness and In Light, a short film by The Maine
D: So, why am I here?
P: We know that we like each other, right?
D: Yeah. So, why am I here?
P: Well, I wrote a song for you.
D: Really?
P: Yeah. Sorry if it was quite out there.
D: No, no! It’s okay. What’s it called?
P: It’s called “Forevermore.”
And speaking of…
6. Forevermore
This is sort of an acoustic track.
Never really, really ever felt so at home before
Never really ever felt this strange and beautiful
All us boys and all us girls
Turned to diamonds, turned to pearls
And never really, really ever felt so at home before
Remember the quote I put at the start of the previous interlude? Yep, this is about the kids.
And I said, “I wanna feel like this forever”
Even if forever’s just for now
We’re on fire, let us burn
As the outside world, it turns
We are here and alive
In our corner of time
Forevermore
Forevermore
Oh, life and love is a funny place. This is sort of from the “looking glass”.
I never really, really ever felt so adored before
Never really ever felt this type of vulnerable
Don’t have to hide, don’t have to fear
All you have to be is here
And never really, really ever felt so adored before
It’s all self similar up into the end of the track, where it seems that the line Forevermore is sort of our return home, the resolution of the tension. We don’t get that at the end.
We are here and alive
In our corner of time
We are here and alive
In our corner of time
It all dies down instead. What a shift, first we had orchestral sounds, now we have acoustic, what’s next?
Interlude 6:
P: So, what do you think?
D: I loved it.
P: It’s a lot of fear to do something like that.
D: What kind of fear?
P: What happens at the end?
D: I don’t know.
P: All I know is, no matter what happens, I’ll still be with you.
D: In life and in death.
P: In darkness and in light.
P & D: Forevermore.
Damn.
7. Tears Won’t Cry (Shinjū)
We get a nice electric guitar to start off a very ‘grey’ track.
Tell me what you think about
Lovers leaving this evening
(With the blood red moon)
Sex and freedom, shelter and
(Sweet endings, too)
Disappearing like a thought
(Our forbidden truth)
Disappear, never get caught
The secondary name for this track is “Shinjū”, which generally refers to, how do I put this? Two people bound by love, “disappearing”, if you will (The literal translation is “Double Suicide”, which wow. I get that the lyrics refer to this very explicitly in the chorus, but damn).
The guitar pipes down to a nice bass part in the pre-chorus.
Dream with both eyes open
We can slip away
Our escape in motion
Now I’m wide awake
Save your tears for something
Worth crying over babe
Don’t waste them on misfortune
Darling, break away to a place they won’t cry
Baby, they won’t cry today
Okay. I have a remit to discuss some very challenging topics, but I can’t for the life of me bring up the chorus, except it’s strangely upbeat (Listen for yourself, you’ll see why).
Let’s move on to the next verse, which is quite similar to the first.
Tell me what you think about
Me and you and Valentine
(And desire too)
Safe and sound in paradise
(Just me and you)
No sense in trying to hide
(Oh, it found me, too)
Our lust and our wild eyes
Okay, so the track is basically just this duality between Love and death. I’m well aware it’s not really a duality, but it’s not what I would have expected on this album after the first half. And, because you read this far, here’s the chorus (if you’re interested), which the second and last are doubles.
Just like a secret lovers’ suicide
Kiss off into the sky
To a mystic place where tears won’t cry
We’ll borrow happiness just for the night
Where all our tears won’t cry
Oh and nothing can hurt you (Whoo!)
Just like a secret lovers’ suicide
’Til death do us unite
In a mystic place where tears won’t cry
We’ll borrow happiness just for the night
Where all our tears won’t cry
Oh, and nothing can hurt you (Whoo!)
Moving on…
Interlude 7:
The letters at the door read “I’ll be home tomorrow. — Love, P”.
D: One more sunset…
On a more optimistic note…
8. One Sunset
We’ve had orchestral, we’ve had acoustic, we’ve had whatever Tears Won’t Cry was. Now, we’re on to orchestral rock.
Part I: P
As the sun takes the city
On the island of the rose
It’s not London calling me
It’s my heart back home
We start with this sense of longing. As we move into the pre-chorus, we get a bit of a shift near the end, and it’s more harsher or different than the rest starting on the line “Days, weeks, no light.”
Oh, she waits for me in the rain outside
As I patiently try to pass the time
Oh, I had my fun in the smoke and clouds
But the day is done, now all I want is to get out ’cause it’s been
Days, weeks, no light in this square mile
Her face, my mind, just one more twilight
We crescendo into the chorus, which is this multi-piece work in and of itself.
One sunset left in England
So go on then, trouble
One sunset ’til I see her
In her red sundress
So I’ll have a smoke and I’ll fix a drink
Then I’ll blow a kiss to the bloody queen
Oh, my love, she waits, so long overdue
One more sun to set, then I’ll cross the sea to you
I sort of see this as the conclusion of one side.
Part II: D
It’s been two weeks in the rain
And it’s hazy in my head
One more sunset in this place
’Til I see her again
We get a similar sound to Part I, so there’s not much to say.
Part III: Await.
The bridge is this repeating mantra.
Let it fade
Let it fade away, away
Let it fade
Let it fade
Leading into…
Part IV: Unite.
Which is just the second half of the chorus but with a different sound.
So I’ll have a smoke and I’ll fix a drink
Then I’ll blow a kiss to the bloody queen
Oh, my love, she waits, so long overdue
One more sun to set, then I’ll cross the sea to you
And then, we all fade out, as it rings.
Interlude 8
P: I don’t know if we can keep going together.
D: Why? After all that we’ve been through, you’re just throwing it all away?
P: No. I still love you. I just don’t think this is what I wanted.
D: What do you mean “Not what I wanted”, you said that you’d be there with me.
P: See, that’s why. After all you did with them, it’s like nothing’s ever good enough anymore.
D: I’m sorry.
P: No, you’re not.
D: I really am.
P: No, you’re not. You never were.
Wow.
9. Broken Parts
This song means a lot to me.
Well, it isn’t getting easier
We are shattered everywhere
No, it isn’t getting easier now
But we’re not beyond repair
I’d been through a lot at the time I found this. Before The Maine and by extension 8123 helped me resurface, I was quite deep, and drowning by the minute. The only thing that would help me, at that time was music and art. Artists like Weathers, glaive, aldn, among others would bring be back up to resurface, but not completely. Only one helped me briefly resurface (which I’ll touch on when I talk about A & Z, one of my set lists I made in April 2023), but The Maine brought me back.
We build into the pre-chorus.
And we are brittle, beware
We crack, we tear
Handle with care
Half done entirely
We fall apart
Rebuild, restart
Right where we are
Found wanting everything
Then, it all gets pulled away into the chorus.
Fractured in fragments
Us fragile things
Falling to pieces
But we’re all the same broken
Fractions and halves of
Some greater thing
Falling to pieces
But we’re all the same broken parts
We get a bit of a return in the post-chorus, but we truly return in the next verse:
You can’t fall any further
Any further from the floor
So gather up yourself now, love
Just as you were before
These are quite short verses. We build up again in the pre-chorus, pull away in the chorus, and push back in the post-chorus.
We get a quiet bridge, in this strange orchestral soundscape soup.
We fall apart
Rebuild, restart
Right where we are
Found wanting everything
We pause, but just for a second. And as we return…
It explodes into the final chorus. Something so light, yet so powerful.
And with a great lyric video too. All of those mirrors.
We quiet down for one last breath.
Interlude 9
N: We interrupt today’s brief with breaking news: famed musician P has been found in critical condition at their home today.
What we know is that P suffered a gunshot wound to the head which appeared to be self inflicted. Police also found a camera supposedly streaming the incident to over 15 000 people. Reasons given in the notes supposedly included their former lover D’s cheating scandal, as well as kaleidoscopic visions during their final recording sessions, where friends and family supposedly stated that P quote, “had challenge communicating their pain and anguish, and would turn to medication.” While those feelings supposedly subsided, P later would plan a quote “Russian Roulette stream, like Derren Brown did in ’03. Only this time, I want to lose.”- Hours Later… -
N: We now have confirmation from the medical staff that famed musician P has passed away at 1:52 am today. They were 23. A funeral service is planned for a week from now, and we have received a special programme to play as a result of P’s death.
Damn.
10. Flowers On The Grave
This can really be broken into three parts.
Part I: Nostalgia
We get this strange orchestral acoustic sound.
Feel the moment all around you
And the quiet that surrounds you
The time you have is sacred
Don’t wait around and waste it
They can’t take that away from you
We get another track similar to Broken Parts (by content, not sound).
Everything is temporary
Even the sorrow that you carry
So tell me are you okay?
You say you are okay
I’m okay now I’m with you
We get a nice chorus, that has a sound similar to 8 (a track by John The Ghost, which is the John’s side project) and it’s still just as dark.
’Cause you don’t plan life, you live it
You don’t take love, you give it
You can’t change what is written
So when fate cries, you listen
And flowers on the grave
Of the child that I used to be
It all fades back, and we get the same sound again.
It was summer when you told me
That you loved me by the oak creek
My ears had never heard that
Tongue forgot the words and
Feet forgot the Earth, it’s true
We get the chorus again, and a new sharper sound with strong string stabs as we lead into a nice instrumental peak.
You don’t plan life, you live it
You don’t take love, you give it
You can’t change what is written
Yeah, and karma is calling over and over
You don’t plan life, you live it
You don’t take love, you give it
You can’t change what is written
So when fate cries, you listen
And flowers on the grave of the child that I used to be
We get a nice instrumental and then we slow down. Then we get a driving drum part as we lead into…
Part II: Non-Permanance
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Everything is temporary (Everything is temporary)
Yeah, it’s just this repeating into some nice string parts, then quiets down, slowing into a nice guitar part added to the sound. Afterwards, we get a half time section, and a strong ritardando into some strange chime part, and then we move to…
Part III: Completeness
It’s a sort of half time guitar part.
Flowers on the grave
Of the child that I used to be
Flowers on the grave
Of the child that I used to be
Flowers on the grave
Of the child that I used to be
Flowers on the grave
Of the child that I used to be
We pause, and then…
We come full circle.
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
I was on the verge of breaking down
Then you came around
And we slowly fade away into the sound.
And as the curtains close…
As the lights come back on…
It ends.
Conclusion
As you get up, gather your belongings, you start to think: What a show.
And what an album. I love this album. It’s a beautiful album, and one that helped me through some tougher times more recently. I’m running out of things to say. But, I started to continue onward. Onward, to the best album.
The Maine Sweet 16 / 17 Special Part V, Lovely: The Best (Mini) Album Part I. 30.04.24
— Korv
