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Apr 18, 2012"Old Ash" and "Silver Self" bring to mind Paul Simon's Graceland, each song incorporating that same infectious shuffle and giddy exuberance that made Simon's world rhythms so compelling. And yet, that makes Beware and Be Grateful all the more confounding, given that some of their melodies seem on the verge of a disconnect.
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Apr 17, 2012The songs are engaging and incredibly catchy, but lack emotion ― that intangible quality that will take this feel-good record and give it staying power.
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Apr 16, 2012An honest and admirable collection that merits some attention.
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Apr 16, 2012They sound like too much like themselves and too much like the others, and even if you discount the pinpoint instrumentation, it's depressingly calculated.
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Apr 16, 2012Beware and Be Grateful, as pleasant a listen as it may be, carries with it a feather's weight, and that usually equates to an album with little staying power.
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Apr 16, 2012What's missing is any emotional contrast to stop all that cleverness from sounding overwhelming.
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Apr 13, 2012Despite all the kooky, twee melodies that make up Beware And Be Grateful, despite the glossy production and multitudinous fragments of ideas that feature on it, even despite the fact that it's hard to think of another band that Maps & Atlases particularly sound like (maybe Grizzly Bear, a bit), this album fails the ultimate test – it's no fun.