Another great one from John Linnell’s State Songs. ‘Maine’ seems like an obvious choice for single if it were placed in the hands of any other artist/band/whatever. It wasn’t in this case, and ‘Montana’ was. But ‘Maine’ is a definite ear-pleaser from the second it starts, and something of an ode to bands from the 60s like The Monkees and The Beatles.

I’ve always enjoyed ‘Maine’ just for the way it sounds. Linnell delivers his vocal very calmly over the top of it, and relaxed while these cascading piano lines support the track in 12/8 time. It’s all in triplets. But I’ll try and consider the lyrical content just for you people. It’s something of a love song, but it’s not, and it seems that the main subject is duality (‘the heaven below’, ‘the hell from above’)…. a bit like ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by the Beatles. You see, 60s. There’s also a reference to ‘Daydream Believer’ in there too.

‘Maine’ was released on State Songs in 1999, but had already been recorded five years prior. It was released in a different mix on an EP, and that version is below. It’s all the same goodness. I’ll even put the demo on here too because I like the song so much.