Album Review: A Color Map of the Sun

A Color Map of the Sun, just dropped and let me be the first to say that this is one high quality, groove pumping, tastefully produced record.  The progression of the album makes the listener feel like they are on a journey through the human condition, experiencing every emotion possible through their spiral down the rabbit hole. This album was made for vinyl with vinyl produced by Pretty Lights.  In fact, it comes with a whole extra disc of bonus material that is just that: The raw vinyl cuts that were used to produce the tracks found on Color Map.  Each cut was orchestrated by Colorado’s very own home grown, Derek Vincent Smith, the mastermind behind Pretty Lights, who collaborated with dozens of musicians from around the country to produce one of his most soulful pieces of art to date.  If you dig music, you better dig soul music, and A Color Map of the Sun smacks you across the face with soul. The album’s first two tracks, “Color of My Soul” and “Press Pause” pack a soulful punch before Color Map really starts to throw down his bone moving grooves with “Let’s Get Busy.”  The combination of both horns as strings brings layer upon layer of energy and purpose to almost every track on the album, yet the snap crackle pop of the vinyl brings the element of raw sound full circle. While at times the album seems to lack the hip-hop references we are so used to hearing at a PL live show, it is almost as if A Color Map of the Sun is a nod to hip hop’s roots.  In fact, too literal of a hip hop reference could have damaged the integrity of an album so full of raw musical expression. Pretty Lights seems determined to show the good, bad, and downright scary side of his musical aesthetic.  “Go Down Sunshine”, “So Bright”, and “Dead Wrong” explore the depths of PL’s dark side.  On the other end of the spectrum, “Yellow Bird” and “One Day They’ll Know” have a more relaxed, ethereal sound that seems to provide balance to the album.  It takes guts to express these types of musical emotions and it is definitely not commonplace within this genre of music. As with all of Pretty Lights tracks, you can download the entire album for free or it can be purchased through iTunes or Prettylightsmusic.com.  As an independent artist, he has found great success by making his music available to everyone for free over the years (with only the suggestion of donation.)  In order to provide a bit more incentive for fans to pay, PL is offering a variety pack of goodies in order to entice fans to open their checkbooks.  Color Map vinyls, pins, t-shirts, bonus tracks, and a neat little book all about the album have nearly all sold out through pre order.  Luckily, there is more swag being produced and record stores are currently stocking their shelves with LP, but I am sure they won’t last long. PL made a sweet little video on the making of A Color Map of the Sun you can check out here!!! The PL YouTube channel also has music videos for every track on the album, along with visual art to emphasize the overall concept that is “Pretty Lights.”  Check out the playlist here.]]>