Getting to grips with Maps and Atlases [Twitter/Facebook] is always more difficult than it appears. Their name has become increasingly appropriate in recent years, as one needs to have a good sense of direction when listening to them, or else they’ll end up getting completely lost. Their music is not for the short attention-span set, so if you’re looking for a quick fix, I would advise you to look elsewhere; there are only a few songs on Beware and Be Grateful that choose anything remotely approaching a direct route. The comparatively straightforward three-minute burst of Vampires and the album teaser Remote and Dark Years are all that the album has to offer in terms of short and sweet pop songs.
However, one would be advised not to confuse ‘non-linear song structures’ for ‘inaccessibility’. While their earlier material may have taken more than a little time to make an impact, 2010’s Perch Patchwork (their long-awaited debut album which was released after six years in existence) saw them take a more immediate approach, and this is something that has been built on rather impressively for the follow-up, which had a gestation period of less than two years this time around. For all the rumblings of a ‘poppier’ sound that surrounded the album’s creation and were explicitly referred to in the press release, Beware and Be Grateful doesn’t come racing out of the traps.
Instead, it eases the listener into the Chicago-based quartet’s new sound with the six-minute opener Old & Gray. It gradually builds from understated beginnings, the muted guitar line and impressive harmonies soon joined by masses of different backing vocals. It never quite takes off, but the band hint at things, teasing the listener up until the song reaches a climax point of sorts, with the repeated line, ‘When you are old and grey, I hope that someone holds you the way I would’. From there, the one-note guitar line slows and segues straight into the much more upbeat-sounding Fever, which is packed to the brim with ideas, which is business as usual for the band.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is that Chris Hainey is still showing other drummers how it’s done. Whether or not he applies a simple yet watertight groove, as on ‘proper’ lead single Winter, and mixes it up with some impressive fills, or adopts a more free-form approach, as on the suitably playful-sounding Be Three Years Old, he is on top of his game throughout, as are the rest of the band. Their music has always been technical-minded (another hint at this is the wonderful guitar picking in the riff for Bugs), but it has also sounded like a band having the time of their lives writing and playing, messing with song structures… throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, basically; breathtaking album centrepiece Silver Self is a case in point.
Their inventive approach to making music frequently works wonders, and the result is an album that is, pound-for-pound, stronger than their debut – which was already impressive enough in its own right – and the sound of a band stepping up their game and producing their most accomplished work to date. On any number of levels, this record is stunning. Those of you who don’t have the time to give to an album as nuanced as this should beware; the rest of us should simply be grateful.
Winter:
Beware and Be Grateful is released on April 16th via FatCat Records.
[PRE-ORDER] Maps and Atlases – Beware and be Grateful: FatCat Records Bundles / Amazon
