The return of The Maccabees
With a highly anticipated third album on its way, Lily Le explains the history of this five man band
Say “The Maccabees”. The response from most people, in order of frequency, would probably be a blank look, “is that something to do with the Jews?”, or one of intense gushing adoration.
In a way, they’ve had quite a bit of a struggle as five young men churning out indie-pop amongst a sea of countless others doing exactly the same. They were dismissed by many at first as just another hipster band that would no doubt fade away soon enough, and have had a lot to prove.
With a much anticipated third album on the way, it seems they finally have managed to make their mark on the British music scene.
Indeed, their early releases of jangly guitar pop about first loves, nans, and a local swimming pool did not have a depth of meaning which was immediately apparent; except maybe to adolescents who could relate to the emotions behind the songs and old fogies who weren’t old fogy enough to have forgotten such wistful memories.
The development of those teenage fans into young adults between their first two albums seemed akin to the whole attitude of the band. Their growth and refinement between releases has certainly not been demonstrated to such an extent by the majority of of their peers.
Their second album, Wall of Arms hones in on what makes The Maccabees great: universally relatable lyrics about realistic relationships which are simple yet profoundly moving, the impressive use of instruments which evoke emotions from within the listener, and an underlying tone of honesty and authenticity straight from the heart of the boys without any pretence or insincerity.
For their next album, Given to the Wild, the group themselves say it is a record that finally demonstrates what The Maccabees should sound like.
A snippet of this can be heard in the form of their new single ‘Pelican’ which maintains all the brilliance of the Wall of Arms, brings back the liveliness of Colour It In (their debut), and asserts a confidence and self-belief of a fully-matured musical artist.
Say “The Maccabees”. The response should be, “a truly excellent band”.
