Customer Reviews

We Can Create

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4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(1)
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Sleep, shag, and make Mercury Prize-nominated albums, that's what. James Chapman aka Maps made the bulk of his aptly-titled debut LP We Can Create on an old 16-track recorder squeezed into his flat in Northampton, England. That's right, with noisy old instruments and ne'er a computer in sight. The neighbors must've kicked up murder.

What type of music had the Jones's banging on the wall? An updated version of "shoegaze", don't you know. That bookish older brother of a genre from the early 90s that championed droning guitars, whispery voices, trippy lyrics, and floppy fringes.

Shoegaze strove to create a specific feeling. Namely, that of being off your head on drugs. In a quiet, let's-not-attract-the-barman's-attention kind of way.

Chief purveyors of this performance-enhanced music in the 90s were My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, and Chapman's closest descendent Spacemen 3. They followed in the footsteps of the world's first shoegazer, John Lennon. He tried his damndest to replicate an acid trip with Tomorrow Never Knows. The result was out of this world. And he had a floppy fringe.

Chapman (no relation to Mark) has given us Shoegaze 3.0. A refit that maintains the genre's mood of low-key psychedelia. He's kept the breathy vocals, angelic aahs, and kiss-the-sky mantras. But the droning guitars are gone. Replaced by a universe of atmospheric electronics, including buzzing synths, trip-hop drums, and the odd Namlook-esque space bleep. In other words, ShoeRave.

Album centrepoint To The Sky winds into being like a musical jewellery box. Then the space-age beats kick in, and we're through the bedroom window off towards the clouds, where an ethereal voice drones dreamily, "I can sing it to the sky/ But there's a risk it won't reply/ If I could change it man I would/ And I won't screw it up this time". Words that seem meaningful but make no rational sense. Perfect.

The euphoric outros of Back & Forth and Eloise are also highlights. Non-stoned listeners will feel like they're pepped up on goofballs. Stoned listeners may have to be scraped off the ceiling.

Every respectable drug-related album needs a microdot of mysticism. On the stately Glory Verse Chapman gets transcendent while ruminating over his gift for music. "These sounds will never leave you/will be there to receive you/these songs, they seem to write themselves."

More prosaically I love how Chapman drawls a colloquial "yerrr" for "yes" on this and other songs. It suggests that when not writing music that reaches for the sky, James Chapman is very down to earth. Should serve him well at awards ceremonies.

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For Fans Of
M83 , Stars, Low, Spiritualized, Spaceman 3, Sigur Ros, Chapterhouse, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Flying Saucer Attack, and Kid-A era Radiohead.

I also think this is one of the best CDs of 2007. If you are looking for a dreaming, satisfying, atmospheric trip this CD is for you. I am a big fan. They remind me a little of Low. But, I think Maps are more assessable. I enjoyed this CD from the first song and it gets better after each play. The engineer did a good job also sequencing the songs onto the CD so that the tracks flow well. I heard this was done from a 16 track in the guys bedroom. Great Indie music. This is the type of CD Maps will make only once. You don't want to miss a minute of it. Influences: Damien Rice, Sigur Ros, and Interpol.

Key Songs:
Elousie
It will Find You
So Low, So High

I recently came across Maps' myspace and was instantly hooked after hearing a few of their songs. I purchased the CD with the hope that there would be a few good songs, and I was pleasantly surprised that every track on this CD is definitely worth listening too. This music is great for long drives, studying at home, or just hanging out chillin. Its the kind of music that you can't help but smile as you listen too it. The songs are uplifting and fun, and never get tired.

I was going to try and recommend some best tracks from this CD, but every song is so damn good that its almost impossible to single out only a few. If I had to pick the best, it would be "So Low, So High", "You Don't Know Her Name", "Glory Verse", "Liquid Sugar" and "Back and Forth". But really you could listen to this CD from beginning to end and be very entertained.

Even though I listened so many times and tried to be fair as possible, I must say that album has a good start but bad finish. Monotone throughout the album.

I just got this before going on a solo driving trip through New Mexico. It complimented those amazing vistas wonderfully. The mountains, the pueblo, Santa Fe, the canyons...Maps did these beauties wonderful justice (along with James Blackshaw's "O True Believers" CD, among others). While playing the final track of We Can Create, as I drove into the 400+ year old plaza in the center of Santa Fe at dusk, just as the final mandolin-sounding melody comes into the song, a candle lit march for solidarity with Tibet was before my eyes. Truly amazing experience that is now one of those perfect memories where sound and vision syncronized perfectly.

There are many people out there waiting for a record like this. I completely love the stuff from the 90's (Ride, Telescopes, MBV, Slowdive, etc.) and, like good music should, "We Can Create" takes the "gazer" approach one step further and makes it current. Like the Telescopes record, "Telescopes," this record has well sculpted lows and highs. I believe any good record takes you off to another place; this one certainly does.

Again I say brilliant!

Best album of the year. The songs have an ethereal, dreamlike quality, while at the same time being catchy and upbeat. This is something most artists never achieve.