The Mains, The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get

The Mains are nothing special, but for some reason, everything on The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get works perfectly together. Luckily, the guitar riffs don’t sound like any band in particular, but rather are just what I’d expect from a rock band called “The Mains”. Guitarists Foster Calhoun and Rich McCully do an excellent job of taking classic, overdriven guitar lines and campy, soft acoustic lines and playing them with the right amount of energy and flow to make a cohesive album.

The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get is a special product of rock and roll. As the press stuff says, “The Higher You Get is a triumph, the sound of a thousand lost weekends and an endless summer of love.” Now, it’s fine to make an album based on late-night clubs, all-night partying, and love lost and gained, but please, don’t be so direct with it. Yes, rock and roll is kinda cliché, but don’t hop on that bandwagon. The Higher You Get rocks out, but it’s nothing earth-shattering. It’s the rock that you heard in a sitcom background track — I guess that’s why I need my rock and roll…

To The Mains’ advantage, the vocals fit perfectly over the instruments and add some nice touches to the base. I like the synthesizer on “Tonight,” too — if they’re going to indulge in the rock and roll feel, they might as well go all the way with it. The lyrics are what I expected: “We’re gonna’ live, but we never will die.” It’s very rock ‘n roll. “I believe in love, I believe on you / If you believe in me, that’s all well ever need.” It’s a tad sappy, sure, but Foster Calhoun sings with enough heart to take it completely seriously — more power to him. Lyrics and guitars aside, the drums sounded solid throughout the entire album and helped keep that rock-solid energy constant.

The Mains have energy, and plenty of it. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what someone plays as long as it’s played with the right energy. The Mains are full of energy, and they have a story to tell. That’s what it takes to put a decent album together, so congrats, Mains; you’re doing all right.