Stephen Michael Roe - Songs About Maps - CDR (2005)

Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm

That title shows a distinct appreciation of emo. Maps – way emo! Anyway, this is a little 6

song demo cdr of pretty, and mostly acoustic, tunes, home made with wobbly muffled vocals

badly recorded over the top. Clearly owes a debt to the likes of Owen and Fred Thomas (more

people should owe debts to the latter), the guitar is skilfully handled, twinkling away

gorgeously with a touch of electronic ambience nestling behind it all. Sometimes an electric

guitar is utilised, such as on “That Point” which has some great skittish parts that are

reminiscent of that other Kinsella.

For a demo, this is all rather nice. The recording of the vocals rather bunks the quality a

bit sadly, I’d like to hear what they sound like when clear, but if you can live with that

and you appreciate Owen (although that guy has made 3 lps of the same songs in a different

order), you ought to check this out, and then listen to it in the Autumn, when it’ll sound

even better. Nice job Mr. Roe, if you had been in Cap’n Jazz then you could have had loads of lps on Polyvinyl or Jade Tree. Instead you’ll probably be stuck like Fred Thomas making cdrs despite your obvious talents.