Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Maps

Upon the announcement of ‘Maps’, one thing was clear – nobody knows if Get Cape Wear Cape Fly is still punctuated with full stops. Well, iTunes suggests not, and so that’s how Sam Duckworth’s musical project will be written in this review.

No time is wasted warming up with ‘Maps’; we’re thrown straight into the album with the rollicking comeback single ‘The Real McCoy’. It’s been two years since the last Get Cape album, and it’s a welcome return to form for Duckworth. But then, this is his fourth album – fifth, if you include his solo outing and resultant album ‘The Mannequin’ – so surely we should expect Duckworth to know his way around the block by now?

Well, yes and no. There’s no denying that much of ‘Maps’ is a far cry from the slightly whiny singer/songwriter folk of Duckworth’s debut album, ‘The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager’; there’s been plenty of progression in between albums, and there’s a refreshing amount of energy abound on his latest. Next single ‘Daylight Robbery’, with its intro of “woo-oohs” and almost anthemic vocals, is a great example of that aforementioned energy. But with both that and ‘The Real McCoy’ featuring so early on in the album, and being shown off ahead of ‘Maps’ release, it’s worth wondering if there’s anything else worth hearing after the first three tracks.

The more serious ‘Call Of Duty’ is presumably an attempt to be current and edgy, with video games references and talk of “starting over”, but it falls flat. Fortunately, it ends abruptly to make way for the delicate keys of ‘The Joy Of Stress’, which is either the title of a new Milan Kundera novel or the worst self-help manual ever. It feels almost backwards that one of the highlights of ‘Maps’ is a song that sounds most like Duckworth’s older material, with lyrics of “a teenager in suburbia / talking to a camera / all she really wants is to be heard”. She’s probably bohemian, too, right?

Elsewhere, more ‘grown-up’ tracks are also enjoyable. ‘The Long And Short Of It All’, featuring Jehst, is an upbeat, energetic look at real life and the grind of a 9 to 5. Jehst’s vocals are a welcome change from Duckworth’s, preventing monotony setting in during the album. But to suggest this is a problem in itself. It’s as if, without Jehst, it almost certainly would be monotonous. ‘Maps’ is ten tracks long and most aren’t what you’d call long; there shouldn’t be a danger of everything sounding the same or anything being forgettable. But the shout-along choruses tend to blend into one another after a few listens and it takes guest vocals and spoken word moments, as in the beginning of ‘Offline Maps’, to make tracks stand out. Some moments, like the jazzy ‘Vital Statistics’, occasionally sound reminiscent of one-album-wonder Esser, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it feels a little dated, and there’s substance missing underneath the danceable beats.

Lyrically, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly appears to have grown up, but again, there’s something missing. Closer ‘Home’ is a nice way to end ‘Maps’, with panpipes and other noises rounding out a more ‘full band’ sound. But it isn’t an ending that inspires you to listen to the album again; ‘Maps’ might be a nice listen with your mates on a sunny day or while you’re in your car heading somewhere, but it’s not something you’ll regularly feel like listening to from start to finish.