Maps - Turning the Mind reviews
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
| Guardian |
 James Chapman, aka Maps, seems to have taken the old Spacemen 3 slogan "Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to" as a motto. The follow-up to 2007's blissful We Can Create documents the effects of stimulants on the human brain. He claims to have done "a lot of research" in this process, which may mean he spent the first album's proceeds getting wasted. He hasn't been wasting his time, though, and Turning the Mind heralds a new Maps sound. In come synthesisers for guitars; there are nods to the dancefloor, angrier lyrics about "cocaine fury" replace melancholia and a general loss of innocence. This is all showcased to best effect on Let Go of the Fear and the Flaming Lips-like I Dream of Crystal. However, at times, Chapman's whispery vocals could benefit from a magic potion of their own....full text |
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| Slantmagazine |
| Like Anthony Gonzalez before him, James Chapman is a purveyor of sugary, buzzing, shoegaze rock—the kind of music that would rot your teeth if it had any caloric content. But Turning the Mind, Chapman's second studio offering as Maps, takes its cues less from the poppy M83 and more from Australian trio Cut Copy, whose strain of electronica is doled out in syncopated disco basslines and feathery drum-machine beats. Still, the dance-driven turn is no less true to the junk food metaphor. Murky, cyclical, and completely self-indulgent, Turning the Mind is a trance-rock candy bar: predictable, but nonetheless useful in satisfying a guilty pleasure....full text |
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| Drownedinsound |
Unfortunately for James Chapman, the gentleman behinds Northampton’s Maps, the best electronic singer-songwriter album of the year - nay one of the best of the decade - has already been released and it is Bromst by Dan Deacon. Even more unfortunately, Turning The Mind is can’t even approach Mr Deacon in terms of musical innovation, nor - crucially - in terms of memorable songs.
Have you ever wondered what Grant Nichols from Feeder singing over a mediocre electronic backing track would sound like? Of course you haven’t, and that’s probably for the best, given how uninspiring the vast majority of this album is. Flashes of inspiration show up from time to time – the 8-bit bleeps in ‘Valium In The Shower’ or the moment when ‘Papercuts’ finally breaks into a pretty thrilling beat. But these scraps of interest are generally lost in a sea of overlong, dull songs with little sense of coherency.
The latter is a problem that really dogs the album. The ethereal majesty of M83 is a constant reference point, as is the New Order/Italo-esque house of Cut Copy (lead single ‘Let Go Of The Fear’ is essentially a poor man's Cut Copy song), but the downtempo synthpop of early Magnetic Fields also appears to be the inspiration for a few tracks. Sadly, so is commercial dance, as the abomination and flat-out worst song on the album ‘Love Will Come’ proves. It’s lazy, feels completely out of place, and would slot onto prime time Radio 1 no problem. However, it has a bit of competition in the shit stakes, as current single ‘I Dream of Crystal’ has such an appallingly saccharine new-age melody that you can almost imagine ubiquitous musical hate-figure Chris de Burgh wailing all over it....full text |
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