A.V. Club: Best of the Decade

Artist Maps & Atlases

  • maps & atlases Rachel Buck

From the first second of 2007’s Tree, Swallows, Houses, Maps & Atlases throws down a considerable gauntlet: dizzying, noodly post-rock with a technical ability that should silence any wailers showing off at Guitar Center on the weekends. Bands with this much prowess are often instrumental, but Maps & Atlases take the artiness up a few notches with their lyrics: Dave Davison and Erin Elders often use the surrealist technique of writing words in tandem by trading lines. Last year’s You And Me And The Mountain finds the quartet embracing a poppier, more playful sound, but it’s no less impressive: The notes come so rapidly that it almost seems fake, yet it’s too fluid for studio trickery.

Updated 05/07/2009

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