25 Records of Christmas, Day 1: The Maccabees

I love discovering new music. As you know if you're on this blog, this is a discovery blog for music. I'm finally writing again and putting it out there for the world to see. As with other music blogs and music sites, December is a time to recap the year's music. This year will be slightly different for me. I plan to highlight one record per day of Christmas, starting with today and ending on Christmas Day. I'm calling it the 25 Records of Christmas series. I'll also be posting a generic list of my favorite records, runners up, stuff I missed, and best new artists as well. So let's get started with today.


I love when an album can take me on a journey. That's how I know it's going to be a great one, and likely something I'll be listening to for years. I hadn't listened to The Maccabees until this year, but I think I picked a perfect time to jump in.

The Maccabees hail from South London, England.

Their newest album, Given To The Wild, was a record I missed this year. I remember I initially listened to it that first week it came out, but it never stuck with me. Going through my playlists, I found it again and it's just as relevant as it was then. The Maccabees have created a feeling of wonder through this record, and I just couldn't get away from the thought that I didn't know where they would go next.

Many of the tracks have an airy disposition, which is what I meant when I talked about being taken on a journey. The ambient swaths tend to make an appearance often, but they never feel overpowering. Tracks like the lead single "Pelican" and "Unknown" show the bands resilient rock nature, while slower paced tracks such as "Slowly One" take string arrangements and send you to a place of near euphoria before dumping you into a psychedelic guitar tone. The group seems to have a cleaner, more focused style than that of someone like Silversun Pickups, and Given... is more percussion focused, as well as electronic-fused.

The third record for many bands is a place where it can make or break them, especially for the indie scene. NME featured the group early in the year, describing their recording process for Given... as much different than previous outings. The Maccabees have always primarily been a jam-based group, but this time round they each sent their respective parts to each other rather than jamming. What resulted, surprisingly, was a similar feel from previous albums, and quite possibly their best work to date.