Maypops "Spirits of Agnew" (Lil' Buddy)
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Thursday. Oct 06, 12:01 AM
There are encouraging signs of life, but...

Having lived in Ohio my entire life and having graduated from the Ohio State University, I must admit there are very few things that come from Ann Arbor, MI that I like. I mean, I was taught at a very young age not to even speak that town’s, that state’s, or that university’s proper name.

But I’m much more open-minded about my music, so when I came across Ann Arbor’s Maypops, I knew I’d be able to put aside my football biases and give them a fair chance. Besides, frontman Khalid Hanifi has already had a tough go of it in the music business without someone like me giving him a hard time about his hometown.

See, Hanifi and his first band, Map Of The World, were signed to Atlantic in the late ‘80s, but then their A&R guy bailed on them and their debut album never saw the light of day. Throughout the ‘90s, Hanifi formed another band, Kiss Me Screaming, which eventually turned into today’s Maypops. This album, Maypops’ debut, was actually supposed to hit the streets in 2000, but again, problems arose and it’s only now that Spirits of Agnew will be released.

I take the time to explain all of this because I think such information is important in forming an opinion about this album. As I gave it my first listen, before I read the liner notes, my first thought was that a lot of these songs sound kind of old. A quick check of the liner notes, then, proved my hypothesis. Now I’m definitely not the kind of guy who would advocate that all bands in a given year (or whatever timeframe you’d like to use) should sound identical, but as rock ‘n’ roll continuously progresses, I think listeners can tell the difference between something written today and something written five years ago. Because of that, I found too many of the songs on this album to be stale and a little less exciting than more contemporary bands.

But that’s not to say that all is lost. The album actually starts off pretty well with “Black Eyed Susan,” a song in which Hanifi cleverly addresses a lost love interest by stating “some other guy has stolen your heart / I want it back and I know where to start.” Another strong track is “Set Me Up, Knock Me Down.” Not only are there some introspective lyrics like “I’m gonna go / I might stay / I know I’ll grieve about it either way,” but the song sounds like it would fit right in on a good Guster album.

After that, there are a few decent, but not necessarily fantastic, pop songs like “Summer Thunder” and “Love Song #37.” Other songs, however, like “Yola My Blues Away,” “The Bloom is Off the Rose,” “Stuck in First,” and “Hangman” just seem to be there.

Then there’s “Baked Cliché,” which actually sounds pretty good due to a cello and organ effectively being added to the mix, but it seems wasted on a song that, as the title indicates, is full of pop song clichés (like something maybe Noel Gallagher would’ve thrown away). Yeah, I mean I guess I get it if the song is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but how am I supposed to take the joke seriously when only a few songs later, on “Combustible,” Maypops – presumably on a more serious note – sing a chorus of “time to get combustible / does anybody have a light?”

At any rate, here’s my final take: I wasn’t necessarily a big fan of this album, but given the circumstances under which it’s (finally) being released, I think a more comprehensive judgment of Maypops should be reserved for a later date. There are encouraging signs of life on this album, and as a result I think I’d be much more interested in hearing what Hanifi and his bandmates have to offer today. Kind of like how some bands (The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene come to mind) have success with their second album and then go back to re-release their debut material (an EP for The Arcade Fire and an album in the case of Broken Social Scene).

Anyway, until that time comes when we get to hear something new, I wish Maypops better luck in the record industry than they’ve had thus far and, well, I’ll stop short of using this space to make a prediction about the big football game traditionally held on the third Saturday in November.
www.maypops.com

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Mike Butz

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