Artist Maps & Atlases

Drew Reynolds

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Maps & Atlases

Between a pair of late-’00s EPs—Tree, Swallows, Houses and You And Me And The Mountains—Maps & Atlases moved from dizzying displays of noodly post-rock to a poppier, more playful sound. Last year’s Perch Patchwork finds the Chicago quartet continuing that transition, its impulse to relax and let the songs sprawl out naturally seemingly a result of the band’s new Barsuk Records surroundings. There’s still some knotty, carefully considered virtuosity to be found on Perch Patchwork, but there’s never been less doubt that it’s the product of human hands—which only serves to make the whole enterprise artfully weirder.

Updated 03/01/2011