Electro pop from British Mercury Award nominees Maps. This super-produced record has been painstakingly pieced together and its slow-building layers of synth give it a very epic feel. Some of the lyrics may not be the most brilliant thing out there, and song structures tend to be a bit predictable, but overall this is a solid release with bucketloads of intelligent electronic soundscapes. Lots of energy, drive, and most tracks are catchy-enough to be instantly likable. Sounds similar to Junior Boys and M83.
FCC: 2 TRY: 3,9,6,7,11

1. Slow, breathy intro with dreamy synth background. Halfway into the song, the tempo seriously picks up, and a slinky electro beat takes over peppered with hella-shimmery sound effects.
2. FCC (fuck). Honey-sweet lyrics juxtaposed over a thick layer of shoegaze noise. Psychedelic.
3. Dirty electro beat with fuzzed out lyrics. Hard-driving. Nicely arranged woodblock percussion and keyboard riffs.
4. Swirly, dreamy keyboard intro leads into a chirpy midtempo electronic beat. The kind of electropop that fairies would love to dance to. Two minutes in, the track dissolves into tinkling synthesizer. Lives up to its’ name: “Valium in the Sunshine.” We’re really trippin’ now.
5. High-pitched 40-second organ intro. Then whispery lyrics come in over the organ. Two minutes into the track there’s a change of pace: tempo picks up, beat gets dirtier and a whole host of experimental sound effects are let loose.
6. Hard-driving deep 120 bmp beat. Pretty straightforward electronic song. Lyrics are slow and deliberate. Beat intensifies for the last two minutes of the song. (Big surprise, right?)
7. Super-produced, layered pop track. Kind of predictable: “all the things we’ve been through….” etc. but it has a nice beat.
8. Gloomy, slow-tempo song with wooshing sound effects and a steady grinding beat.
9. Super 80’s-sounding synth. Very bright, shiny and optimistic. A very catchy track.
10. Bubbling synth, lyrics about getting high. Perky little song.
11. Bare, cold, minimal beat. Some really enjoyable piano riffs and glitchy UFO noises (if you can get past all the “you’ll die happy and you’ll die smiling” stuff in the chorus)
12. Sad slow loss song. Fuzzy beat. Exactly what the title “Without You” suggests it will be. But then it picks up in the end with this million-dollar synth line that comes out of nowhere. Priceless.