Maps We Can Create

Mercury nominations are odd monsters. The annual award has managed to create a situation where who wins the prize is almost irrelevant - of far more interest is the shortlist, especially given the selectors' occasionally petulant tendency to avoid picking the bookies' favourites. Who can forget ten years ago, when Radiohead's life-changing OK Computer was nudged out in favour of Roni Size's drum'n'bass odyssey, New Forms. Not that I have any issue with this: I love that John Tavener can still command respect amongst a predominantly indie/pop/dance crowd. This year's list was the most commercial in years, however. Amy Winehouse's bajillion selling Back To Black was favourite - I'd have been happy to see that win - and the NME's beloved nu-rave was well-represented. Last year's winners were bewilderingly re-selected and even the hideous View were in there.

One of the records which got less of the acclaim was Maps' We Can Create. The band's (or should I say the man's - Maps is solely one fellow, James Chapman) sales have not benefited as much as is traditional, although critical acclaim has certainly been warm. Chapman has earned respect from various influential type figures and now plays impressive-sounding venues such as London's Institute of Contemporary Arts with his full band.

So what's the deal? What have we here? It's kind of difficult to base an assumption of the sound of a record on the back of a Mercury nomination. Well, Maps plough a path through several fields: the predominant tone here is synth-based shoegazing - imagine Kevin Shields collaborating with M83. I was about to write, 'mix in a little...' but I ran out of comparisons. Which is rather odd, given that even the most simplistic of music hacks, such as yours truly, can usually conjure out of the ether a million and one spurious, and often extremely tenuous resemblances. It's not that Maps have something totally unique here; more that with most albums individual songs differ considerably and one is therefore likely to have something more concrete upon which to hang your hat.

The problem I have with We Can Create is that I'm not sure if I have a problem with it. Yes, it is pretty samey, for want of a better word. The sound, the colour and the tone are the same throughout - it really is a synthy wash of sound with the slightly baggy beats of MBV's Soon. Whether on the crashing chorus of So Low So High, or the epic, gorgeous Lost My Soul, the same timbre is present throughout.

But: the flipside is that the songs really are, well, gorgeous. That synth sound may grate by the end of the album in a way that, say, Justice or The Knife manage to avoid; but listen in to the songs and you may well find yourself uplifted and carried away by Chapman's semi-whispered croon and the songs' immense catchiness. Eloise, for example, is just a pop song. It doesn't pretend to be anything else, it doesn't aspire to be anything else, it is what it is. And it's probably all the better for it than to be wrapped up in some sort of pretension of seriousness.

And so it continues. There are some wonderful, joyous moments here, and it's an album that should, if you have any heart at all, create at least some sort of cheeriness in that wrung-out heart of yours. It has its flaws certainly, and if Maps' career continues in this vein then this lack of variation will almost certainly be Chapman's undoing, but it's worth seeking out for an interesting and cheerful antidote to what else passes as pop these days.