I’d like to talk about a newly discovered phenomenon today, I’m going to call it back catalogue syndrome, and it’s something that I’ve really been suffering from in recent weeks. Whenever I get a new album of a band that I know and love, it’s brilliant. I play it heavily for the first few weeks, but a lot of the time it struggles to establish a lifetime in my regular listening much longer than that. Of late, I’ve been wondering why that is, and I think I’ve come up with an answer.
Where much of it can attributed to myself being a creature of habit, I think there’s another reason why new albums fade but the older material stays. Don’t get me wrong, I love new material, adding new music to my collection and giving myself a greater variety of choice. I also love when bands evolve their sound, I’m not saying I want a new album to sound exactly like the last. What I am saying however, is where I commend artists for trying to move forward, a lot of the time it falls short of their older work.
A prime example of this is Marks To Prove It by the Maccabees, when compared to Given to the Wild. I remember reading an interview with the band just before Mark’s to Prove It was released. They were quoted saying “this is what we feel is our best material to date”, it was the reason they gave for the album being released a year late. Now I have the upmost respect for The Maccabees, I’ve caught them live a couple of times and always enjoy their shows. This however, was one of the biggest musical lies I’ve ever been told. Marks To Prove It never even comes close to Given To The Wild. Fact.
Given to the Wild is in my view, one of the most perfect albums ever recorded. It has everything that you can possibly want from The Maccabees, and has a feeling of an unspoken epic-ness and musical prowess throughout. It’s just so so polished, and I feel like despite it being a year or so behind schedule, Marks to Prove It still isn’t finished.
When you compare the tracks found on each album, there are some that are tough calls still, but for me Given to the Wild will always win through. Tracks like Go, Feel to Follow and Grew Up At Midnight have no rivals, where the track list of Marks to Prove It dwindles in comparison.
Reading this back, I’ve given Marks to Prove It a pretty scathing review. I’d like to stress that it’s still a great album, and well worth a listen. However, if you’re new to The Maccabees, you categorically have to check out Given to the Wild first. You won’t regret it.
