Out tomorrow on Azteca Records is the new album from Philadelphia indie rockers Maps & His Mothball Fleet. Titled Gulf, it focuses on post-pandemic way of life, distance and relationships and we’re absolutely delighted to exclusively stream the album right here today on Backseat Mafia.
Of the record, the bands leader Matt Wanamaker told us exclusively “One consequence of a long quarantine is that the music world is about to be flooded with albums created from a place of isolation, but this one started out as that over 3 years ago. I wasn’t trying to ask or answer big questions…there are definitely some light beats and pop-leaning songs in here…but as a project it was my own way of working through that process of reconnection, and the lyrics and vibe hint at that more than say it outright. It’s artistic collaboration as a vehicle for reintegration with society, and in that way it’s as much a Hayley, Dan, and Scott album as it is mine.”
It’s a follow up to 2016’s lauded debut ‘Fighting Season’, which was recorded on a handheld tape machine in Afghanistan. This time, Matt has headed overseas again – this time written on on the coast of the Persian Gulf after a few months preparing along the Gulf of Mexico. The title is of course double edged though, recorded on the gulf, but about the gulf in people’s lives.
What it is at its heart is a smart and lovable collection of songs and tunes, from opener – the drop dead gorgeous indie Pocono Islands, through the Ian Broudie-esque Roman Candle and equally lovely Coastal Living, to album closer – the deadpan Somesyvania, where the Lloyd Cole in the band comes out, surrounded as it is by guitars flitting and bass jumping.
Check it out in all its glory here