22. January 2025
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Media Review

Max McNown – Night Diving

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Max McNown - Night Diving

Max McNown - Night Diving
4.7

Rating

 4.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very personal songwriting and storytelling
  • Lovely voice

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Melodic similarities

Max McNown had very successful years 2023 and 2024. The title track of his debut EP A Lot More Free has been streamed almost 100m times on Spotify only. Two EPs and an album later, he is sharing his sophomore album Night Diving on 24th January 2025. I had a listen and share my thoughts with you.

 

Max McNown – About The Artist

Max McNown is a US-American artist, who is originally from Oregon. However, the country and folk music singer-songwriter is nowadays living in Nashville. After his debut EP, he added the EP Love I Got Left in 2023. 2024 featured two major releases by Max McNown, his debut album Wandering (Love Me Back) and the EP Willfully Blind. A Lot More Free is still his most successful single release. However, two more singles, Love Me Back and Better Me For You (Brown Eyes), have been streamed over ten million times each on Spotify as well.

 

Max McNown – Night Diving – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 34 minutes.

1. Night Diving

The 23-year old artist starts his sophomore album with its title track. The song is defined by his warm and emotional voice and the beautiful flow, somewhere between country and folk. The instruments back up fine with a fine melody without being too present. A nice opportunity to dream away into the musical spheres of the upcoming artist.

2. Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)

This November 2024 single release has been a strong success for Max McNown, as already stated in the bio. Especially the fine melody of the chorus is striking. It feels simple, but is so catching and memorable on the other hand. Nice one.

3. It’s Not Your Fault

The third track on Night Diving is It’s Not Your Fault. The song is an emotional beauty with a lovely chorus. Towards the end, the song also has a nicely rocking fade-out, which suits the song – and the album – really well.

4. Azalea Place

Azalea Place plays with different dynamics as well. The songs starts rather quiet, but gains significantly more energy with the first chorus. The melody rather feels like a folk song – however, the instruments lead to  a nice modern country music touch.

5. Love I Couldn’t Mend

Love I Couldn’t Mend is a rather characteristic song in the Night Diving context. A rather calm listen, which leads to an emotional and rather straight listen. The warm voice of McNown makes you listen to his songs and his stories. Very enjoyable.

6. Hotel Bible

The style of Hotel Bible reminds me of Better Me For You (Brown Eyes). Even though the song “just” has some 3.6 million stream so far, the audience felt to have enjoyed this listen so far as well. It has been released in October 2024 as the second single of the record.

7. Won’t Let Me Go

Won’t Let Me Go is the only track in here which is exceeding a duration of four minutes. The song is a lovely love ballad with beautiful lyrics. Nonetheless, the song is coming with some energy and definitely not the most quiet listen on Night Diving.

8. Roses and Wolves (feat. Hailey Whitters)

With this duet released in early December 2025, Max McNow gained some additional spotlight. The collaboration with Hailey Whitters is having lovely vibes. Especially the duet parts in which both singers are active, spread a lot of energy.

9. Marley

Marley kicked off the promotion campaign towards this album in June 2024. It comes with 5.6 million streams on atmosphere. I feel that the song has been a wise choice as a single. The groove and atmosphere of this ninth song of Max McNown’s record is simply very intense. I love listening to it.

10. Freezing in November Revisited

Night Diving is closed by a revisited version of Freezing in November. The song has already been the closing track of his debut EP. The unagitated, but very personal style of it turns the tenth song into a perfect farewell from that release.

 

Max McNown – Night Diving – Spotify

I will add the Spotify widget once the album has been released.

 

Max McNown – Night Diving – My View

Max McNown comes with a lovely voice and the talent of an excellent, very personal-style storyteller. He massively profits from that in his sophomore album. You don’t care about that the melodies could use some more variation and drama here and there. It is just too lovely to simply listen and enjoy. Look forward to having this artist at the Country to Country in Berlin in a few weeks.

Favorite Song: Love I Couldn’t Mend

 

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