Make Do And Mend – Don’t Be Long

They say to never judge a book by its cover, but that methodology has worked for me in the past (think The Hotelier) so I didn’t see any harm in going into the new Make Do And Mend album with high expectations based entirely on the great double meaning title, “Don’t Be Long”. This was a mistake, the album is far from the masterpiece that the title may suggest.

Listening to any one song on the album in isolation is fine, the songs sound good, they are enjoyable when mixed in a shuffle among other songs to break them up, you even find yourself passionately singing along to some sections. BUT put them together and try to listen to the album from start to finish in one sitting and eh, there’s just no… substance?

I formed most of my opinions on this album while driving up and down the freeway with it the record pumping and this could have impacted how focused and drawn into the album I was, I’m not sure. Trying to listen to the album song by song and decide where the high points of the album were I found myself totally zoning out from the album and tuning back in only from time to time when particular songs or sections of songs grabbed my attention.

The majority of the album sounds the same, James primarily uses his raspy yelling/screaming voice which on previous releases was used to add passion and feeling to important sections of songs. Now overused, it seemingly takes the passion away from almost all songs. His wonderful clean vocals which are capable of conveying emotions in a way that most bands only dream of are largely missing from the album.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some great songs on the album, and some songs I thoroughly enjoy. The problem is that they are similar, not only to each other, but to the stand out songs on MDAM’s previous album “Everything You Ever Loved”. These songs, namely: “Each Of Us”, “Sanctimony” and “Sin Armor” are the few on the album that mix in clean vocals with the raspy vocals in a way that actually adds to the song enough to really bring out the emotion in the way the band intends and provide glimpses of what Make Do And Mend are capable of. But when they are compared to older songs “Hide Away”,”Storrow”, and “Blur” you realise they are not quite as unique as they seem on the album.

All of this is fine if you Make Do And Mend is your favourite band, and Everything You Ever Loved is your favourite album, essentially you have a second part to the album and you will love it. It becomes a problem when you were hoping for some progression from a band with so much potential.