On January, 6 The Maccabees released their long anticipated third album (Given To The Wild). A release that has been saluted with enthusiasm by critics and fans; NME, reviewing it, claimed: “They’ve given us the first classic album of 2012“.

Actually The Maccabees – who already won the title of “indie rock saviours” – released an album completely faithful to the “super indie” canons, but managed to treat the genre with the touch and feelings of grown-ups. They are no more the indie kids fetishizing an abstract sadness; instead they sound like adults dealing with pain and problems through music.
The album is structured with grace, touching varied musical territories: a subtle whole that quietly captures your attention from start to end.

Guitar player Felix, in a recent interview, told:  “We had put so much detail into the songs that we realised halfway into the recording process we’d already thought everything through. [...] We approached our influences a bit more literally before. Whereas I think maybe this time they were more buried, because they were more understood. It was more a case of thinking why certain records belong to themselves, and how do they make you feel like that?”.

Given To The Wild is going strong and selling good, but – funnily enough – the band revealed (talking to NME) yhat the label was worried about a commercial flop: “Fiction were really worried. They thought we were making a concept album. They were talking about a low-key release. They thought it was going to be this lo-fi, weird-sounding record“.