Maps & Atlases Perch Patchwork album review

reviewed by Garin Fahlman

People are sometimes very fickle when it comes to expectations versus change. There are people whose idea of music is a neatly organized dresser with hundreds of drawers, one for each possible colour of sock. Inside every drawer, there are endless rows of dividers, separating each possible variation of the socks inside – say, one section for beige socks with frays on the left, and one for beige socks with frays all over. When a sock with frays on only the left side gets worn out to the point where there are frays everywhere, they complain that the sock is selling out and not being true to its roots. And now it is dead to them.

With the release of Perch Patchwork, Maps & Atlases seem to be in danger of becoming like that sock. Yet I would be amazed to hear anyone claim that this album is a treason against Maps and Atlases’ previous work. The album – which is the band’s first full album after two EPs – is the beginning of a bold new direction the band only hinted at in their earlier work. What makes Maps‘ evolution so impressive is how purely necessary and organic it sounds. There is nothing lost of the frenetic spaz rock that came from Trees, Swallows, Houses, but instead of firing it madly out of a cannon, they are picking precise shots with a sniper. The album brings together the sounds of acoustic indie hipsters with splinter math rock nerds and makes it sound like they were separated at birth.

The basic framework of the “technically skilled musician” image, is that you must always show that you are the most incredible instrumentalist of your choice alive, and that anything simpler than what you play (which normally rules out the first three most common time signatures) is for idiots who don’t know what real music is. This does not describe the type of musicians Maps & Atlases have become. Perch Patchwork is, at its core, your basic indie rock album. It’s even comfortably danceable at some parts. What Maps adds to the formula however is their talent for sounding like they actually are the best instrumentalists of their choice. And this is more of a compliment to the genre than it would seem. The whole indie/hippie image is about getting close to nature and being free, and Maps’ sound marries with those ideals with their tinkling guitar taps echoing the sound of rain, their pounding drums running through the forest, and their quirky vocals giving the whole package an indisputable charm.

The album does have a tendency to feel at times like the band forced some experimentation in where it wasn’t necessary. The album has many instrumental interludes that feel like they should be complete songs, but only serve to make you frustrated that they aren’t. There are also some truly wonderfully crafted songs with great pop hooks that trail off far too soon. A chorus will only be sung once before the song moseys to a halt, making some tracks feel a little cheap. But the sheer innovation that invades almost every track really shows that this is a band that can go in whatever direction it needs to go without sounding like they phoned it in, even if at times it sounds like they are just a bit embarrassed to admit it.

Perch Patchwork is an album that any progressive music lover needs to own. It is effortlessly cool, fusing genres left and right without sounding over its head. Maps are like the whiz kids who decided to go hang out with the cool kids for helping them with their math homework. Yea it’s not what they’re used to, but what they bring is so unique, they stand out as the beautifully odd personality that turns out being what makes the cool kids actually cool.