Label: Velvet Blue Music

Release Date: 2003

Website: www.thebandmap.com

MAP - Secrets By the Highway
Joel Atkinson

A fun anecdote about Josh Dooley, singer/guitarist/fearless leader of MAP: he can play any Smiths song on guitar. I find that fascinating. Johnny Marr's guitar work with the seminal British guitar band of the '80s is very complex, usually involving multiple guitar tracks. Dooley's work with MAP has also involved a lot of guitar interplay, and Secrets of the Highway is no different.

What is different about this release is the work of mad geniuses Richard Swift and Frank Lenz, who seemingly have their fingerprints on every release coming from the Velvet Blue Music camp. No offense to Joey Esquibel's fine drumming on MAP's previous 2 EPs, but Lenz's frantic pounding adds a fun new dimension to the MAP sound. Swift also provides a lot of keyboard work, from the very odd whirring synth that pops up on "Everything Is Bad For You" to the soft piano of "Is This Goodbye?" Lenz and Swift's work adds a lot of depth to this album.

Clearer production is another plus that this album has over Dooley's previous EPs ("Teaching Turtles To Fly", "Eastern Skies, Western Eyes"). The EPs were a bit muddy, all the guitars seemed to blend together in a tangled mess. The instruments are much more distinct on Secrets.

This album has lots of neat songs. Two of them, "Everything Is Bad For You" and "Tell Me," I would describe as "summertime in a creepy David Lynch way." There are some very interesting chord changes, especially the long outro of "Everything." "Lay Down the Law" is one of the best pop songs of 2003, featuring some ultra-smooth piano and guitar work with an almost bossanova beat. Yummy. "Love and Magazines" continually builds on an acoustic guitar base, adding glockenspiel (or other chimey-like instrument), mandolin, and electric guitar to form a nice little pop song, with a neat walk-down at the end of each verse. "The Dancing Girl" is a pleasant instrumental waltz, which brings to mind...a dancing girl. Sort of like a ballerina dancing in a music box.

MAP's previous releases (Teaching Turtles To Fly, Eastern Skies, Western Eyes) were solid, but Secrets of the Highway easily surpasses them in both songwriting and production. This is one of the best guitar pop albums of 2003.

posted 02.11.04

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Joel Atkinson is not Stephin Merrit, but he does own a ukulele. He'll sing you love songs at theicecreamsocial@yahoo.com

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