Milton Mapes,
The Blacklight Trap

Label: Undertow Records
Year: 2005

(4½ out of 5)

Milton Mapes' Westernaire was an album I liked, and it continued to grow on me with each listening. The band's new album, The Blacklight Trap, is an album I loved immediately, and yet it still continues to grow on me. It's just that good.

Things start up right where Westernaire left off. It's not until the third song in that real growth is evident.

"The Blacklight Trap" presents a haunting portrait of life ruined by abuse and loss. I have no idea whether this is based on reality, but vocalist Greg Vanderpool seems to really be reaching out to someone when he cracklingly wails: Well the drinks used to keep you from thinkin' / The gospel used to break your fall / But lately you've just been sinkin' / And that's better than nothing at all.

"Bowie AZ" seemingly continues the story, this time with "nothing at all" the actuality instead of the fear: <>Your sideways cap and childlike grin / Are what I long to see again / You'll tell me what kind of man you've been / Someday when you reach the end / When we meet in the desert wind.

"Tornado Weather," the album's real centerpiece, is a brooding, bluesy growl of angst. It's a song of frustration at having to compete with great music: Eleven Hundred Springs, Johnny Cash, and the Byrds. Vanderpool, the band's lead songwriter, is begging for relief: I'm just trying to keep the pace / You hear it in my weakened voice / You see it on my weary face / … Is someone there to ease my worries / And get me out of this refrain?

Comparisons to Crazy Horse abound among write-ups on Milton Mapes. I've done it myself. But when listening to The Blacklight Trap for the first time, my wife made what I think may be an even better comparison: Grandaddy without the synthesizers. Vanderpool's voice is indeed reminiscent of Jason Lytle's. And in many ways Milton Mapes seems to be moving toward a more electronic sound.

Whatever comparisons one makes, there likely are few bands out there who can put together something as solid as Westernaire and then up the ante with a masterpiece like The Blacklight Trap.

Buy: Amazon

April 15, 2005