Album review: 'Lovely Little Lonely' by The Maine

When asked what they had planned for their new album last summer, the guys in The Maine repeatedly mentioned that they wanted to put care into the details.

And they did.

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“Lovely Little Lonely,” due out Friday, is a definite representation of the band’s progress.

In comparison to their 2015 release “American Candy,” the new album is more focused and set on a theme. 

“We know that it needs to be a body of work from song one to however many are on the record that we love every single song,” drummer Pat Kirch said last July.

At that point, the band said they had a good sense of where the album was going. They wanted to take their time on it, and they were going to be picky.

“Lovely Little Lonely” is The Maine’s sixth studio album and their first album released entirely independently.

Working independently took off outside pressure, according to Kirch, and allowed the band to focus entirely on making the album exactly the way they wanted it to be.

Upbeat, positive and varied in tempo, the album is 12 songs that weave love into every verse and chorus.

From slower, calmer tracks like “Lost in Nostalgia” to faster songs like “Do You Remember? (the other half of 23),” the band made a rock record out of smooth, sweet lyrics.

Little details, while small, are evident throughout the album, placed carefully into the tracks.

The notes in “The Sound of Reverie” are subtle but potent, details that really make the song. And in “Lost in Nostalgia,” the calmer track has depth, made possible by little changes in instrumentals.

Tracks three, seven and 11, “Lovely,” “Little” and “Lonely,” not only spell out the album name, but create a buildup.

From what sounds like just an interlude between songs to a song that encompasses the album with lines such as “the lovely little loneliness,” the songs, their content and their placement are yet another example of the care and thought the band put into the album.

The singles they released prior to the album, “Bad Behavior,” “Black Butterflies & Déjà vu,” and “Do You Remember? (the other half of 23),” gave the illusion that it would be a fast-paced work. Instead, the record is a balance.

With positive vibes in every song, The Maine took an idea, inspirational love songs, and blasted their sound into every song.

And that sound is unique and more refined than previous works by the band. The guitars are more prominent and defining, while there’s a line between it being entirely a rock album and being something that doesn’t fit neatly into one genre.

The result? An album that is true to who The Maine is, while still being a body of work unlike anything they have released before.

The Maine hasn’t changed, but their sound has evolved, and “Lovely Little Lonely” is evidence of that growth.

Hear "Do You Remember? (the other half of 23)" below.