Previously, I attempted to find the ideal soundtrack to the olive green season, Autumn. With the energetic youthful spirit of The Spinto Band already established, it is time to explore another side the winter precursor.
As the leaves around us become stained with the affects of time and nature, so do our minds as they gradually adapt to the hallowing nights ahead.
Last September, James Chapman, aka Maps, delivered a second offering of blissful and blippy indie-electronica, but this time drenched in dark clouds and heavy atmosphere, generating a theme of heartbreak and regret.
With his first album We Can Create, Chapman produced a more accessible and arguably more uplifting array of well crafted gems, which stands distinctly at odds with Turning The Mind. The collection wafts in and out of a running story documenting the shifting levels of a difficult breakup, and the self-help growth that follows, with such a grace that successfully re-imagines the whole 'heartbreak album' cliche. In fact, the imagery laden title, Turning The Mind refers to the process of cognitive reasoning that the individual struggles with when attempting to move on from someone. Somehow, Chapman has managed to capture the core emotions and harrowing mental states of a typical breakup, and set it to the perfect soundtrack, creating glorious imagery, highlighting just how underrated Maps truly is.
The opening title track comfortably sets the mood, with it's chilled building sense of longing and pleading lyrical narrative, "Hey, how you keeping? I guess it's been a while. I heard, you've been sleeping. That always made you smile. Why is it, I'm so ashamed when we meet? Why is it our conversations just repeat?". As the tracks continue, the story unravels taking the listener through the different stages of a breakup, including the paranoid confrontation
However, it is important to note that Chapman also features moments of clarity and slight optimism within all this hellish imagery. Sprinkled amongst the thorns exists the upbeat and 'smile-through-the-pain' anthems of 'Let Go Of The Fear' and 'Love Will Come', the drug induced dream quality to 'Valium In The Sunshine', and the twisted cheery logic to 'Die Happy, Die Smiling'; which concludes the story with the suggestion that Chapman has perhaps moved on from the pain.
This ambitious, yet rewarding second album from Maps is a real masterpiece and shows real maturity from the Northampton songwriter. The only way that it could be faulted is in its inaccessible nature, and uneasy feel, much unlike the gem laden We Can Create. But this headache affect throughout the album simply enforces the theme behind the musical imagery, and builds on the understated charm of the piece. In many ways, it's as if the listener is enduring the breakup just as much as Chapman is, yet this somehow feels comforting. Turning The Mind rests suitably in my concept of Autumn due to its harrowing lyrical content, and swirling mix of sounds and dark images. A truly great album, for the loving and the grieving!
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