The Lost Cartographers “Walk On” (Imaginary Chicago Records, 2009)

Promising first steps from Chicago five piece

With three songwriters, none of which has a personality that overwhelms the band aesthetic, there’s plenty of diversity and a lot of strengths as the band attempt to make their mark. The course they set is Americana, starting with garage(y) country rock, ‘Walk On’ is like a female fronted version of the Long Ryders, ‘Killing Time in Nashville’ is purer country with the organ acting like runway landing lights showing where the voice should softly glide. There’s some Knife in the Water style gothic country on ‘Hudson River Teenage Blues’.

They are particularly strong when the voices of Gabrielle Schafer and Erin Fusco join in harmony, sounding like fellow Chicagoans Freakwater on ‘Goodbye Ohio’, ‘Proposal’ or ‘Love in the Morning’. They do start to labour the point with ‘Metronome’ which is perhaps one gentle song too many, maybe it’s just a set up for ‘Golden Record’ which pushes the vocals up a notch, the organ pulses like a satellite circling the rhythm section, the guitars are roused from the slumber of the preceding tracks and there is a major deviation from the template as it threatens to go all Sun Ra on us.

It is possible to navigate through this record on very strong stepping stones, there’s just a little bit of boggy sentiment between, nonetheless they are good at what they do. A little less Freakwater and a little more Eleventh Dream Day would for me, make the experience more solid.

Date review added:  Friday, September 04, 2009
Reviewer:  David Cowling
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Do I have to draw you a map