It’s a typical Saturday night as these words spill from my sleepy head. While Tweets of drunken nights flood my timeline, I’m thinking about eating my last Hot Pocket after midnight and regretting it in the morning. After a long evening of reading Anderson Cooper’s memoir and watching a new iCarly, Maker’s new self-titled EP kept me busy until I swooned over Bill Hader on SNL. Maker is an alternative rock album with an indie twist in its handful of songs that confused me at first, then made me almost cry and ended on some high notes.
When “Shadows” started I thought to myself, is this a British band? There was something about the vocals that reminded me of the UK. That thought continued as “You Know Who You Are” played. If you’re wondering, no, Maker isn’t from England; they’re from a basement in Massachusetts. The accent I heard faded once “I Had To Put My Lady Down,” though. Remember when I said there were almost tears with Maker, here’s the point where I almost owned a pair of salty cheeks. There was one simple line, “miss my dog barking” that made me assume this was a tearjerker about having to put a pet to sleep.
All of the above didn’t have much pep to them, but the energy shifted into gear after the somber puppy tune. “Hurricanes” had the most drive on Maker, but “Medina” sometimes referred to as “West Coast” won me over each pass through the record. Claiming the West Coast has the “best smoke,” “Medina” is a love song about wanting to ditch your current state and head out west with the one you love to do “the coolest things to do.”
My night came to an end as I tried hard not to pay attention to Rihanna on SNL as I wrapped this review up and came to the conclusion…Maker is a rock album that’d sit in an alternative section that’d border indie. It’s for fans of The Dangerous Summer and The Promise Ring, and if you do like them then you need to go and see them on tour. That’s only the next logical step because when you like the music you have to go take it in live. Maker is currently on tour with Turnover and Major League through December 21st.
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