c.layne Album Recommendations: "Maps of Us"

Album Recommendations: Maps of Us

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

c.layne

[#] Maps of Us (2014)

Glossy black desire, yearning, and everything in between.

Reviewed May 30, 2025

A darkly melodic, reverb-tinged, minimalist psychedelic rock album? Sounds familiar... Antonymic isn't the only familiar point in the c.layne catalog here either—"Confess"' slinky bassline and booming kicks are a direct callback to "the mind i left behind" on albumone. Neat! Maps of Us is no mere retread, though. Don't worry if opener "Release" sounds a little plodding, because this album really starts with the auditory floatation tank of "Syrup" and never really wanes. Through the goopy layers of quivering bass, clean guitars, and vocals twisted and pitch-shifted into unrecognizability, it plays like an Antonymic from a glossy, icy future. I may like it a little more, even.

"Take a moment to pause/And remember/All the old things you had/And dismembered", c.layne sings halfway between reassuring and warning on midpoint "Sensors". It's in this little trio of songs, "Visitation", "Sensors", and "Gauze", that you find the brightest spots on the whole album. The vocal layering and harmonies, the unsteady rhythms, the lines about feral lives and feral needs—it's what he does best, perfectly balancing dark and menacing with just that touch of seductive pop to bring out the flavor. Maps of Us is a hugely nostalgic record for me, having accompanied me on many an early morning bus ride in high school. It's gentle enough to fall asleep to, but evocative enough to stick with you the rest of the day.