After teasing the world with a trio of EPs, the Windy City’s own Maps and Atlases have finally graced fans with a bustling debut LP – Perch Patchwork. The album is a full dozen songs kissed by horns (“Banished Be Cavalier”), harmonies (“Israeli Caves”), and mathy instrumentation (“Carrying the Wet Wood”, “If This Is”), that are at times radiantly schizophrenic, but always captivating.

The opening track sounds like Black Joe Lewis developed a falsetto and ditched his Honeybears to hire Minus the Bear as his backing band. It's start-n-stop drumming combined with the off-beat acoustic strumming of color chords make for the perfect intro to 37-minutes of the brightest, most astute pop this side of Look Mexico.

Dave Davison keeps us in check on “The Charm” where he sings “I don’t think there’s a sound that I hate more/than the sound of your voice/when you say that you don’t love me anymore,” over fresh baked, flaky layers of looped buzzing and dizzying keyboards before the song pseudo-swells into “Living Decorations” – a danceable tune ripe with a foot-stomping chorus and calorie-burning tambourine playing.

If this album does not intrigue you after the first ten minutes, then go ahead and take that diamond engagement ring off layaway because you’ve obviously got commitment issues.

“Pigeon” blends heartfelt singing with the bands love for complex rhythms and technical guitar work to deliver one of Perch Patchwork’s best tracks. The nearly three-minute tracks sounds like Paul Simon actually giving birth to Vampire Weekend; however, the most enjoyable thing about Perch Patchwork is it’s sequencing.

The album sees a track like the driving “Solid Ground” coalesce seamlessly into the deceivingly intricate guitar piece, “Is”, and the songs seem less like patchwork and more like one big sonic-Snuggie that wraps the listener up in a cocoon of art-rock that could put the Dirty Projectors to shame.

Somehow, someway, the quartet saves their best – and most promising – for last.

“Was” is a heartbreaking instrumental track that subtly mixes what sounds like a toy piano over a simplified, fuzzy-guitar part that weaves flawlessly into to the title track. “Perch Patchwork” fuses guitar flourishes, twinkling marimba, time-signature chicanery, an acapella vocal round, and a blossoming string arrangement to create a nearly a six-minute triumph that puts an exclamation mark on an already dazzling effort.