Maps album review REPOST
ha..[r], as I saw they were nominated but didnae win the ever-blander mercury music prize this year. They didnt deserve to winit, neither did “klaxons” (silly name, silly band) — I knocekd this review out back in the Spring - it was an interesting album and I liked the mix of MBV with more some dancey trancey things. Woxy.com play it all the time now, and I enjoy hearing it when it is on, but it’s not Neu! or Can anything really. Like to see what the guy comes up with next.
| Maps: |
| We Can Create |
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| With James Chapman’s first full-length album, the psychedelic, cosmic pathways of the mind are delineated (a bit), although I actually suspect “Maps” is probably titled after some nickname that the Northamptonshire musician has. And the shoegazey English Shire (alright, that’s not a real genre) sound of Spiritualized and My Bloody Valentine actually gets an effective update by Maps here.It’s pretty good for a first record too, mastering lots of elements of its clear influences, while often coming up with something fresh and different. The album unfolds in a kind of hazy, druggy glory that brings to mind, mid-90s Yo la Tengo , Air, and sometimes on the (thankfully, few) meandering tracks, labelmate Moby. But also there are catchy Stone Roses and Charlatans-like vocals, and the melodies are indeed tuneful, and memorable. It weirdly manages to have the admirable Britpop tunefulness of Badly Drawn Boy and co., without getting stuck in that Nineties sound at all.
In places the music is really excellent - Nyman style repetitions on a Theme and it could well be a bit of a mellow classic, I suppose, the album never going beyond a mid-tempo as it is. And the record benefits from its tracks similarities in acquiring an overall unity, that a lot of contemporary stuff just can’t muster, and the track order is really satisfying, and I found myself happily letting it play through to the end. I must say, titled with an earnest epithet like “We Can Create”, I thought this album was going to be more annoying, and the lyrics were actually alright - not too grating, but ploughing a kind of unspecific cosmic sense of glory. (I blame drugs, or perhaps religion?). The vagueness only becomes too much on Don’t Fear, which almost spoils (”Feel like Someone, Somehow, Come On”) the track’s pleasant layering of texture. With references to “Songs that write themselves”, Mr Chapman perhaps refers to the escapist pleasures of sequencing electronic tracks, or even the obvious lightness he felt in composing such a succession of catchy tracks when making it. So if you’re looking for a summery album of refined - yet, not overblown - anthems, definitely try and listen to some of this. |