In its now five-year-long major-label career, Mayday has put out a series of albums that more or less followed themes: innocent, early-Beatles sing-alongs (Mayday), richer, late-Beatles midtempo compositions (Viva Love), anthems (People Life, Ocean Wild), and dark rockers (Time Machine). In each case there were other types of songs mixed in, but each album had a dominant style.
On their fifth album, Falling Angels With a Flying Soul, the lads have given us a true variety pack. It goes from rocking, to proclaiming, to joking, to emoting with none of those styles breaking out as the record's signature sound. The most consistent quality of the songs here is simply popness, in a variety of forms. In the wake of their crowning artistic achievement, Time Machine (and at the end of a very busy year), they seem to be in a period of transition. Along the way, they've produced a well-made, mostly likeable pop album with a few hints of future greatness.
A well-telegraphed goal of Angels was to recapture the freshness of the original (major-label) Mayday sound. There was something to be said for lightening up a little after the brooding grandeur of Time Machine, and the lads succeeded on several of the tracks here. The cheeky "Little Nurse" and exuberant "Christmas Surprise" are bright and bouncy tunes much like the upbeat parts of Mayday's self-titled debut, only a lot more polished. Likewise "Garbage Truck," the only song on the album in Taiwanese, which echoes folky predecessors such as the great "Buddha Knows." (It's only marred by an distracting, surely accidental resemblance to Charlene's 1982 hit, "I've Never Been to Me.") On early songs like "Crazy World," they may have played up their innocence and amateurishness, but in fact it was reality as much as image. There's no question Mayday is a better band now than it was five years ago. Even singing boyish praises to a cute nurse, their increased confidence comes through, and the humor is completely self-aware.
That embrace of old-school pop also brings a set of slick love ballads. They're enjoyable too, but not quite as satisfying. It isn't that "Let Me Take Care Of You," "Come Back," and "Superman" aren't catchy or well-executed. In fact, Ashin has become a much more polished crooner without -- thank God -- losing his frequently near-unhinged emotional expression. But this time around, the melodies sound less fresh ("Come Back" lifts a chunk of its chorus from the last album's title track), and the arrangements are less adventurous than I've come to expect from this creative powerhouse. Lest we forget, even the most syrupy ballad on the first album, "I Love You (Hopeless)," closed with a lovely duet for guitar and feedback. And perhaps in keeping with the band's striving for innocence, on most of the ballads Ashin trades profundity for simple, direct sentiment.
But they're back on their game and then some with "Wrong, Wrong, Wrong," which combines military drums, dissonant organ signatures and a stately rhythm into one of Mayday's best ballads. Most ingenious is the song's feverish guitar solo, which seems to come in from some other sonic world altogether. Though the lyric, again, is a fairly straight-ahead tale of lost love, this may be Mayday's greatest tribute to the Beatles in its long Liverpool-focused career.
That love of the Fab Four comes out fully into the open with "John Lennon," in which Ashin (who shares lyrical duties here with Masa) admits to being a Beatles wannabe while conveying what a noble impulse that has been for Mayday and many other Asian bands. In an odd choice for a Lennon tribute that nevertheless seems perfect for its element of surprise, the lads render the song as swirling, near-disco J-Pop. And Masa brings a fresh tone to the frank, emotional lyrics.
The most impressive debut may be Stone's, with the music for "Good Night, Earthlings." It's Mayday, but not quite like we've ever heard them before. With no chorus, the song just builds and builds to a majestic climax. Drumbeats rise up, guitar lines drift off into reverb and you can just barely hear echoing screams in the background. Lyrically, it's of a pair with "John Lennon," despairing of war and suffering.
In fact, on the whole there may be as much darkness as light on this album. It opens with the fine war-themed rocker "Monkey King," followed by "Stubborn," which sounds to me like a slightly obsessive revisiting of the classic anthem "Fool." Of course, compared back to back with that song from four years ago, this one soars with sonic beauty, simultaneously delicate and powerful. It may be the most classic pop single of Mayday's most consistently pop album.