Album Review: Mayday Parade - 'What It Means To Fall Apart'
Ten years after the release of their groundbreaking self-titled record, Mayday Parade are still here to tell you What It Means To Fall Apart.
The long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s Sunnyland, the Florida rockers have brought out an album that has been a result of newfound passion and perseverance during the pandemic. Releasing five singles in the lead up to the album, the band have teased fans and critics throughout 2021 and now it’s come to the full feature.
Mayday Parade is a band that have never diverted from the sounds that brought them to where they are, and have only adapted and matured it as their fans and they themselves have adapted and matured to the world - there is still this strong distinct link from their debut A Lesson In Romantics to their more recent works, and that includes What It Means To Fall Apart. Opening the album is ‘Kids Of Summer’ along with singles ‘Golden Days’ and ‘Think Of You’. The energy is electric, and the sound has never been stronger from the band. These tracks act as those classic pop-punk summer hits - the hits the world doesn’t get as often but needs just as much as it did decades back - and will be enough to warm hearts in these cold days and long nights. Don’t let the rain and the snow get in the way of yearning for those sunny days out. Mayday Parade are here to assure you they’ll come back, bright and warm and as beautiful as ever.
The standout track is the hit single ‘Bad At Love’, which the band released earlier this year to worldwide praise. One of the slower, deeper, heartfelt tracks of the album, it’s already become a fan favourite and has the love and relatability of fans around the world. This is also the best example for the band’s maturing but familiar style. Alternative and emo acts are always mocked for having songs that are “fake deep” or seen as over-exaggerated narratives of emotions, due to the young ages of the musicians or the young demographic of their fans. With acts such as Mayday Parade, who have grown over the years and their fans have grown with them, it brings a genuine level of depth to the emotion behind the sound and within the lyrics. Pulling heartstrings in music will always be an artform within the art of music, and Mayday Parade have developed the tools and talents to pull it off and prove it with every record they release.
What It Means To Fall Apart takes the lowest themes of life and sets them to a trademark style that Mayday Parade can only pull off, and is another testament to how far they have come through their lengthy career and how much further they can go with what they’ve learnt over the years. Not even a global pandemic can slow them down.
The world knows what it means to be in love and to lose it all, but only one band can teach you What It Means To Fall Apart.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
