In the past few months, thanks to some very repetitive and grueling traveling engagements, I have rediscovered Podcasts and the innumerous benefits of keeping up on them. For one, listening to newscasts like NPR or The Economist makes long drives significantly shorter, much more so than listening to music. But more relevant to this review, music podcasts make you become a better citizen of music. New artists and genres from around the world linger at your fingertips, beckoning for your attention – all you have to do is listen.

Thanks to Santa Monica station KCRW’s Song of the Day Podcast, I have found Maps, aka James Chapman. Primarily recorded by his lonesome in his Northhamptonshire, UK apartment on a dilapidated 16-track, We Can Create is an impressively dynamic and eclectic collection of songs that provide a curiously addictive soundtrack to just about any mood you might find yourself in. Chapmans’ chemist-like precision in mixing the right combinations of influences and atmospherics masterfully treads the fine line between hack-album and greatness. Artists like Grandaddy, Air, Radiohead, and My Bloody Valentine shine through We Can Create in a unique way that bolsters acclaim for the relatively obscure creator as opposed to his more popular ingredients.

With opener, “So Low So High” Chapman distantly and calmly croons “Strange you feel so low/ Then you feel so high” in a manner that is all too reminiscent of Torquil Campbell of Stars acclaim. These words come to summarize the album- a collection of highs and lows but with the added calmness and serenity of looking back through hindsight. To extend this idea out further, We Can Create is an album that reflects the great sounds of the past decade but with the soothing calmness and luxury of retrospect.

Among the numerous highlights of We Can Create (of which nearly every song qualifies), a few select tracks stand out from their brethren. “To The Sky” was the track featured on the before mentioned KCRW podcast that sold me hook, line and sinker on the rest of the album. The song starts with an incredibly catchy lo-fi guitar hook that is steadied by restrained organs and Chapman’s harmonized vocals, “I can sing it to the sky/ But there’s a risk you won’t reply/ If I could change it man I would/ And I won’t screw it up this time”. The lyrics are admittedly anything but earth-shattering- in fact, We Can Create is lyrically elementary. Oddly however, this otherwise deterrent is a strong point of the album. Prominent and meaningful lyrics would command attention away from the instrumental excellence at work. Chapman wisely chose to keep it simple and let the instruments do all the talking.

The yin to the poppy, shoegazing yang of “To The Sky” is without a doubt “Back + Forth”. Not many people can pull off a Radiohead-soaked number without coming off like a jackass (ie. Coldplay’s “Daylight”), but Chapman passes with flying colors. To that, kudos are in order. Most approach a Radiohead track by valiantly trying to reinvent that oddly catchy syncopation or progression that only they can make work. It seems as if Chapman understood this and did quite the opposite. He took off all the fancy abstractions and complications, threw in a Moby-esque bass drum drop and made it something easier and more contented. It is these songs, stacked back to back on We Can Create that forms the nucleus of the album. Much like a chemical reaction, two songs lacking foundational similarity or compatibility are tied together amid a swell of potentially unhinging influences thanks to the clever catalyst that is James Chapman. Note: there will not be a chemistry terminology pop-quiz at the end of this article.

The rest of the album is comprised of songs that sound like a lot of other people. There I said it. But I mean that with the best of intentions. I am not usually the kind of guy that digs other peoples’ hackwork, in fact I am shocked I am even writing this, but DAMN is this album good! Between the near-recital of Thom Yorke’s “The Clock” on “It Will Find You” and the Doves-come-Air reprise of “When You Leave” it becomes clear that something about We Can Create makes it immune from the typical lampooning albums like it all to often receive. To me, it’s the frighteningly consistent and cohesive feel these songs have despite being so starkly different from one another. More so, when an artist can openly and so closely interpret a myriad of musical giants and find that perfect balance between them and emboss his or her own creative imprint on it, the resulting music takes on a life of its own.

We Can Create is a splendidly executed experiment in creating something from the created and not being afraid to wear the processed ingredients on your sleeve. James Chapman built an astute and spacey album that not only stands the test of multiple listens – it invites it.