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Review: 'LIFE SIZE MAPS'
'Strange Obsession'   

-  Label: 'Old Flame Records'
-  Genre: 'Pop' -  Release Date: '17th April 2015'

Our Rating:
With young bands being increasingly made up of members who have grown up online it's a scary thought (at least to digital immigrants like me) that more and more new releases will take as many cues from the virtual world as from real life.

Strange Obsession is one such album in that it deals with "personal tragedies experienced through the channels of text message bubbles and Facebook chat boxes".

There's some small consolation in the fact that. although the Brooklyn quartet's songs are based on what singer and guitarist Mike McKeever calls his "internet identity crisis", they are also about reclaiming an idea of connections instead of fretting about becoming isolated.

In a quote that could belong to Pseud's Corner, McKeever describes the album as, "built around the idea that 'bittersweet' is the truest emotion, occupying a space outside the dichotomy of light and dark."

There are implicit warnings of the dangers of obsession and addiction. In RPG, the lyrics are about staring blankly at a screen (presumably at role playing games) and in This Same House the singer laments: "22 and I'm wasted again - can't stay away from this thing".

By the closing track, Past The Veil, there's some hope that bad habits can be kicked or, at least, controlled even though there's the sinister footnote that "everything behind you leaves a trace"; something Edward Snowden knows a lot about!

Musically, it's less interesting. The debut album was mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House, Future Islands), and mastered by Greg Calbi (The Horrors, Passion Pit, St. Vincent) and neither seem much inclined to add any token 'weird' touches to the relatively straightforward synth-pop sound.

In consequence the album is a bit flat. It is like a website with lots of flashy graphics that are appealing only until you realise there's significantly less to it than meets the eye (and ear!) .



Life Size Maps' website
  author: Martin Raybould

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LIFE SIZE MAPS - Strange Obsession