MAPPING YOUR DREAMS

Get the album, press play. Jericho 1 comes in, instrumental, crescendo, and when getting to the climax... almost! It leaves you hanging there, shocked and begging for more. 6/10

Then comes Levodopa, in my opinion, the strongest tune in the album. Truly post-rock, a nice build-up, dreamy clean guitars and a mezmerizing synth that touches the listener. Instrumental, simply beautiful. 10/10

The third song, We Should Keep This Secret, nice song, maybe lacking of 'spark' or something that may draw attention. Soothing, instrumental (again), and kind of hypnotizing towards the end. 6/10

Fugitive, the next song, longer than the other tracks in the album, introduces vocals. Moody, deep and touching, something caracteristic of Laura. At the 4.38 mark it 'explodes', showing the heavier side of the band. Amazing song, captivating. 9/10

With Non Serviam, and its clean guitars and theremin-esque synths, Laura, once again delivers an instrumental full of passion, following the build-up / climax formula that suits them so well. 8/10

We Are Mapping Your Dreams, one of the strongest tracks, gets the listener into a dreamy field during the first part, and then crashes him against a post-rocky wall, only to bring him back to the clouds, and banging him once again, in an (yet again) instrumental that demonstrates Laura's compositional power. 10/10

Hikikomori is somewhat a more 'traditional' song, in a broader sense of the term. No explosion or climax, just a calm and flowish tune. Relaxing and entertaining. 6/10

Raise Your Flags features vocals and shows, once again, the typical calm/storm formula already described; nothing new, but not bad. 5/10

Ariadne, an interesting track, not different from the rest, but with an extended climax with crazy instrumentation, disonant strings and so. 8/10

The last track, Heliopause, includes a more 'folky' guitar work and vocals. Kind of boring at first, but the ending compensates a bit, in a manner of last effort. 6/10

All in all, it is a great album, it does not extends too far out of the build-up/climax formula, but accomplishes it really well. Levodopa and We Are Mapping Your Dreams surely deserve a couple of plays, and the rest of the album will surely captivate any post rock fan.

Final Score: 7/10, 4 stars.

Protip: These songs are heavy in an emotional sense, try adding some sensitivity to the listening.