Album Review: Beware and Be Grateful

Album: Beware and Be Grateful
Artist: Maps and Atlases
Label: Barsuk Records
Release Date: 17th April 2012

Maps and Atlases are a wonderfully inventive indie math-rock band, hailing from Chicago. Their second EP "You and Me and the Mountain" featured a lot of clever instrument use, as well as distinctive vocal parts from the band's singer David Davison, and driving drums behind everything. Maps and Atlases first full length album 'Perch Patchwork' combined their math-rock style with folky influences and pop inspired song structure. It was critically praised and featured mostly shorter experimental songs with interesting lyrical and musical ideas.

The first song of this album, 'Old and Gray' starts in a poppier style than their other releases, taking most of it's 5 and a half minute length to get to it's main section. While the album rocks a little more lightly than previous ones and focuses more on vocal lines, there's still a math rock element featured in the songs. The album's main single 'Fever' is another poppy excursion with a clever verse hook and a fair amount of repetition. So far the album feels lacking of the solo instrumental parts of old, although it'd be harder to integrate them with the poppier style.

Just as that thought occurs however, 'Winter' begins to play with a math-rock influenced introduction and general backing. There's some nice backing vocal parts in the song which go well with the guitars to create a good overall sound. 'Remote and Dark Years' is the black sheep of side 1 with the title being used as a simple chorus and less prominent drums. The overall feel is much more reflective than the other songs on the album, and there's more experimentation and movement away from the pop style. The first side finishes with the beginning of 'Silver Self' which continues onto the next side.

Side two begins with the far more upbeat part of 'Silver Self', which is more reminiscent of songs on 'Perch Patchwork' featuring vocalisations by Dave Davison, alongside the lyrics. There's also an extended instrumental part at the end of the song which works well. 'Vampires' features a rock influenced main riff and more driving drums alongside prominent vocals. The shortest song on the album, it's a nice break from the longer tracks with less repetition also.

'Be Three Years Old' features more of a math-rock feel than a lot of the songs on the album, but it's executed in such a way that the faster parts feel almost messy and the slower parts feel like they're missing something. Vocally it's difficult to follow, aside from the chorus and although it probably does feature clever bits of timing and instrumentation, they get a little lost. 'Bugs' is another short song, in a light almost folk influenced style. There's some nice guitar work and the song overall isn't bad but it's not the most memorable thing on the album.

'Old Ash' features sparse instrumentation at the start, which contrasts with a lot of the songs on the album. As the song continues, it develops into more of a full sound, with instrumental trills and flicks grabbing the attention at the end of each vocal line. The album's closing track 'Important' is laid back and reminiscent of the final track on Perch Patchwork in its style, although instead of getting a little more lively towards the end, it stays gentle and relaxed throughout. As an album, "Beware and be Grateful" is poppier and more vocally based than previous releases but manages to carry some of the band's old style through also. There's perhaps less to enjoy from a musical standpoint, but there's more vocals lines which you can hum from his album when compared to the last one.

Rating: 3.75/5.00