Album Review – MAK

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MAK is full of both musical intrigue and hooks to keep listeners interested. At times, the album is quite complex, but at any given instant it can shift and become as straightforward and catchy as can be. As well, songs seem much more linear rather than cyclical; they start in one place and end up in another, as opposed to using repetition (verse, chorus, verse) as the basis for song structure.

The first track is marked by swirling guitars and soft vocals, but when the rhythm section enters, the track sounds much more like a BADBADNOTGOOD song with vocals. The chords are dissonant and tense, which creates a sinister undertone that recurs throughout the album. Jesse MacCormack sounds like he’s barely trying to sing his parts, but this doesn’t detriment MAK — it adds to the album’s melancholic tone.

Putting the album into a single, definable genre is difficult if not impossible; Bulletproof Love sounds like it could have been on Radiohead’s The Bends, and yet Stab Me has a really strange, almost industrial sounding percussion bit which would be fitting of The Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails.

Overall, MAK is extremely diverse stylistically and definitely one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.

Paul Bogdan
A&C Editor

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