Maps & Atlases

Dave Davison's voice — a seasoned croon continually abandoned for a controlled yet penetrating howl — betrays the range of emotions he has faced in the six years since the band's last release. In 2012, just before the launch of the acclaimed Beware and Be Grateful, Davison unexpectedly lost his father, his best friend. Grief took the form of inquiry: How can you reckon with the sudden death of someone whom, your entire life, was right beside you? How can you go on living in the unbridgeable gulf between the light and the dark, between the dark and the light? The title of Maps and Atlases' new album, Lightlessness Is Nothing New, serves to foreshadow an emotionally and musically dynamic collection of songs that contemplates the jolt of loss and the strain of longing to music that, against our better judgment, makes us want to dance.