The Early November – The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path

Artist: The Early November
Album: The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path
Label: Drive-Thru
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: July 11, 2006

Overall: 7.2
Music: 7.0
Lyrics: 8.0
Production: 7.5

This is my concise review of the multi-disc release by The Early November.
Over three years have passed since The Early November released their only full-length album, The Room’s Too Cold. Since then, song-writer and front man Ace Enders has embarked on multiple ventures including a solo full-length under pseudonym ‘I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business.’ However, even for such an aim-high thinker, nothing he has ever tried comes close to the magnitude of the release of triple-disc “The Mother, The Mechanic, The Path.” While the potential is there, rarely does this 30+ song adventure achieve what I expected out of one of my all-time favorite bands.

The Mechanic
Disc one starts off quickly with the pop rock tune ‘Money in His Hand.’ While solid musically, despite the opportunity of auto-tuner it just never feels like Ace’s voice is completely on. After a mostly boring introduction also containing ‘The Rest Of My Life’ we finally arrive at the first breath of fresh air, ‘Decoration.’ Live, it is one of the most energetic and passionate in their discography. I felt it would be quite difficult to capture in a recording but as it stands it is just as aesthetically pleasing. Skipping past the next filler tracks, ‘The One You Hated’ is vocally the most outstanding song on all three of the discs. ‘Long Talks’ is catchy and belongs on Top 40 radio. Other than those few songs, the rest of the album belongs at the bottom of the pile.

The Mother
Personally, I find this disc to be the best of the three. Starting off a bit slowly, it contains definite standout tracks. ‘Hair’ is one of the more upbeat of this disc and will be stuck in your head for days following a single listen. ‘Driving South’ & ‘From Here To LA’ are both simple and probably took as long to write as to listen to, but lyrically match the depth and confusion I’ve grown to love in Ace’s song-writing. ‘The Truth Is’ a perfect ending to the softer side of The Early November we are exposed to on this disc. Again, some great tracks, and some that shouldn’t have ever gone past the demo stage.

The Path
All I can say about this disc is that it’s a mess. With 24 tracks, this disc has a 49:28 total running time. With tracks as short as twenty seconds and the final going past six minutes, I feel like I’m listening to a whole bunch of random out-takes. Besides the orchestrated acoustic version of Decoration, there’s not much worth listening to on the entire disc.

Like I stated earlier, my expectations for this record(s) were high, maybe a bit too high, but regardless I don’t think the band came close to their reputation. Reminding myself that it sells for $10 completely redeems the record, because you can find an album worth of tracks worthy enough of your money. I believe this record would’ve scored above a 9 for me overall if they had done just that and stuck to 12-13 tracks. Triple disc, bad idea, sorry guys.

Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Money In His Hand
2. The Rest Of My Life
3. Decoration
4. No Good At Saying Sorry (One More Chance)
5. This Wasn’t In Our Plan
6. The One That You Hated
7. Long Talks
8. Outside
9. Make A Decision
10. The Car In 20
11. Figure It Out

Disc 2
1. My Lack Of Skill
2. A Little More Time
3. Little Black Heart
4. Hair
5. Driving South
6. Scared To Lose
7. From Here To L.A.
8. Is It My Fault
9. I Don’t Know How To Say This
10. The Truth Is
11. 1000 Times A Day

Disc 3
1. Intro
2. We Grew Up The Same
3. Runaway (Part 1)
4. Session 1
5. This Is Love
6. Session 2
7. We’re Finding Something Out
8. Session 3
9. Decoration
10. Session 4
11. Uncle
12. Session 5
13. Never Coming Back
14. Guess What
15. Session 6
16. You Don’t Know What It’s Like
17. Session 7
18. Look At Me
19. Session 8 (Part 1)
20. Session 8 (Part 2)
21. Runaway (Part 2)
22. Session 9
23. I Think This Is Love
24. A Bigger Meaning