Abraham Lincoln once said, "Im a slow walker, but I never walk back." The same holds true for fellow sons of the Prairie State, Maps & Atlases, who, despite a flurry of activity since their inception in 2006, are only now releasing their full-length debut. But its been worth the wait: not only is Perch Patchwork the Chicago quartet's first long player, its also their first masterpiece--a beautiful suite of songs that should rightly place the band in indie rocks upper echelon.The band's previous two EPs employed an arid, live sound, setting up Perch Patchwork to deliver a lush contrast of strings, horns, assorted percussion, and a variety of toy instruments, all placed just-so on some spot-on songwriting. In a world cluttered with digital ephemera, an album that flows from beginning to end with such deliberate grace is all the more special not to mention a perfect soundtrack for the hissing of summer lawns.Maps & Atlases have toured with Frightened Rabbit, Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club, Foals, Deerhoof, Steve Malkmus, Pattern is Movement, Nurses, Minus the Bear, Portugal the Man,et al... seriously.