From the Dad File...Travel Music for Dancing and 1 Year Olds:Maps' We Can Create

I thought Maps'We Can Create would be travel music but not necessarily in this way.

With our one year old and two month old in the back of the van, I was driving from my home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to Madison where my brother-in-law and his fiancée live. About 15 minutes from their house, Jude, the one year old (pictured), was getting antsy in the backseat. Too far away from me to hand him more toys, I did what any other dad would do: put in the music of electronic mastermind Maps (a.k.a. James Chapman).

Maps takes the best parts of electronica, such as the buzz wash vocals of Spiritualized that work like keyboards, while having enough slam down rhythm like Radio 4 to keep me bouncing--which was exactly what I needed to do.

Bouncing, waving my free arm, and altogether putting on a jam dance show in the front seat kept Jude entertained the rest of the way. If I paused to change lanes, or when the music stopped between tracks, Jude started to whine again, but with Maps back on board, I was again the visual for the stimulating music.

Perhaps you never thought of electronica as kids music, seeing as how so much electronica comes out of the rave scene and all, but at least with something like the inoffensive Maps, the beat goes on.

Plus, I can imagine 12 years from now, Jude will be sitting in the passenger seat next to me. I'll pull out this classic disc from back in the day, and as we bounce in our seats again, we'll also explore the spiritual subtexts in the lyrics. "To the Sky" says, "I can sing it to the sky/But there’s a risk you won’t reply/If I could change it, man, I would/And I won’t screw it up this time," which seems like a very honest confessional prayer that speaks to God against a doubt in his response." Then there's the way that "It Will Find You" interacts with words of Jesus. Jesus said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25), and Chapman sings, "Take what you choose/to leave behind you/Love what you lose/and it will find you."

I only hope that Jude will always want to bounce and wax theological with his dad.

Thanks to Maps and Mute for the review CD.