With Mark Hoppus and Matt Healy amongst their fans, The Maple State’s 2018 comeback album ‘The Things I Heard at the Party’ was a long-awaited triumph. Now, after a not-quite-as-long wait they return with the aptly titled ‘Don’t Take Forever’.

‘Winner Part II’ kicks off the album with Ben Folds-esque piano as the band sing ‘I wanna be like them and maybe they wanna be like us’. As the guitars come in with increasing gusto, there’s an infectious enthusiasm in the words ‘You can’t be a winner if you don’t play your hand’. Recent single ‘Zero Days Since Last Incident’ follows with its synth melodies wrapping around a sound that’s equal parts early 2000s indie rock and emo revival.

‘Better Than Before’ is a sad retrospective take on a birthday that didn’t turn out quite as planned, albeit with jaunty jangle-pop hooks – ‘I tried to crack a smile… You could always make me smile’ – that got heavier as defiance takes over: ‘You know we’ve got this dream. It’s not quite dead’.

‘No Time to Waste’ has intricate and melodic hooks that reminded us of Into It. Over It., while ‘Dead Beneath the Stars’ is almost a folky sea shanty. But with big riffs. The ‘Arrested Development’-referencing ‘There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand’ (why don’t more bands take inspiration from the Bluths?) takes things down with shoegazey elements before the album wraps up with ‘Vacancy’. A touching ode to friendship and reliance with a touch of The Hotelier in its anthemic atmospherics, it starts with a question – ‘Will you be there at the end?’ – before closing with reassurance: ‘Every road you walk, I’ll be holding out my hand’; ‘There’ll be a vacancy in my heart and I will hold it for you’.

‘Don’t Take Forever’ is another sweet listen from The Maple State.