Album Review: “Dyed” by The Maine

I was scrolling through Apple Music the other day and happened upon Dyed by The Maine — a band, oddly, that’s from Arizona. It’s the latest offering from the group which has been around since 2007. Their light-touch alternative style of music is very accessible. Indeed, may I say radio-friendly? Sure. I just said it. The band leans more toward pop than emo, yet gets lumped into the larger category of alternative rock. I’m not sure that’s accurate, but we live in an age of micro-genres and a seemingly endless supply of new music. As an aside, my podcasting partner, Keith, told me on the phone the other day that something like 20,000 new songs are uploaded to Spotify every month. 20,000! That’s most likely impossible for one human to listen to in a year. If you’re a regular reader, then you know that I listened to all 500 of Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020. That little project took me from October 2020 to April 2021 to complete. If my math is right, that’s about 6000 songs. 1000 songs a month. Again, if my math is right, to listen to 20,000 songs in a month, you have to listen to 667 songs a day. Is that even possible? I’m going to say no — especially if the songs average 4 minutes.

So, while I’d like to say that the reason why I have never heard any music by The Maine until now is that there’s just so much music being released that The Maine’s albums have been buried in a monthly landslide of new music releases. But that can’t be the case for a band that’s been releasing records since 2008, can it? Whatever the case, I’m glad I found this group — especially this album.

For most groups that are 17 years into their career, a greatest hits or an album of singles would be appropriate. What The Maine has done on Dyed is to go into their proverbial vault for songs that were left off album releases since the band started and record them in a fully produced way. So, if these were the songs that were vaulted, it begs the question after listening to this record: why? These are really strong songs that show a band not necessarily evolving but being good songwriters. Nothing about this collection screams “revolutionary,” but in the “what might have been” universe where an A&R rep got these songs into the hands of radio programmers, The Maine would have been right in the pocket of bands like The Fray, OneRepublic, or Neon Trees. Alas, their star didn’t rise as high as some of their contemporaries. But we’re in a different age now. Radio isn’t quite the titan it used to be, and more people are introduced to new music through streaming or YouTube videos. So, however you delve into new music, you may be pleasantly surprised by The Maine.

On Dyed the songs are well produced, the hooks are right there, and the whole presentation won’t alienate those who like melodic rock with, okay I’ll say it, an emo twist. While there are no standout tracks in the traditional sense, every song from the opener (“Two Flowers”) to the last track (“Until the High Wears Off”) is equally good. For those who like their no-skip albums, this, to me, is one. As I wrote, the album isn’t revolutionary, but it does harken back to the mid-2000s when, it seemed, bands like The Maine could seemingly come out of nowhere and strike a chord with the record-buying public.

For a band I hadn’t heard of until recently, Dyed by The Maine is a wonderful gateway into their back catalog.