Sure, if you really think about it, everything… comes crashing down. Houses deteriorate, promises go out of date and everything you swore could last forever is short-lived. Map of the Woulds “Only For Today” hangs that bleak concept with music that would rather get you on your feet then quietly reflect on the brevity of life.
The Seattle band plays angular rock, gloomy jazz, odd ballistics, and that occasionally satirical funk. “Only For Today” combines all of them and, while still pointing in a single direction, doesn’t become too complacent about itself. It incorporates an influence from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in the sense that the grooves of the song approach the unknown but never fall apart completely. Like that band, Map of the Woulds makes a song more of a street full of twists and turns than simply a straight line.
The thing is, the humor ‘Map of the Woulds’ seems to emanate from the entire enterprise. “We’ve always felt that the music is a space where everything is fair game, as long as the part, the mood, the meaning, is on point,” the band says of the song. That could be a way to rationalize whatever all-manner-of-ideas are thrown together and labeled “experimental,” but the song’s kaleidoscopic structure provides some solid structure for the strangeness to go.
Still, it’s this very conceit that the song refuses to turn it into a prayer of mourning. Its hustle and bustle gives it a sort of odd sheen – it’s as if to say, look, to accept the fleeting is to accept the chaos as well. The calculated layers and the offbeat pacing all help to keep that tension afloat. There’s a lot to dig into here, but the song doesn’t require homework.
The band was formed in 2019 by Woody Frank on guitar and vocals, Andrew Woods on bass and vocals, and Adrian Woods on drums and vocals. They play as a trio because that is the most flexible formation for music requiring sudden shifts in momentum.
“Only For Today” has no answer to the question of life falling apart at every turn. But it does remind us that in the moment, for that minute, the noise can be appreciated. Sometimes, that’s enough.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
