Lo-fi bedroom pop band Ducktails recently released "Map To The Stars", the first taste of their upcoming sixth album Jersey Devil (and the first album to be released since guitarist and singer-songwriter Matt Mondanile left Real Estate). Mondanile began recording the album while living in Los Angeles as a member of Real Estate and then continued the recording process after moving back to his hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey. The accompanying music video lends a psychedelic hue to the tranquil Jersey suburbs, which continues to serve as Mondanile's primary muse: “Everything felt right: the mini mall across the street, the stock brokers walking their dogs, and the sweet summer smell in the air" (FactMag).
The hazy and mid-tempo track serves as an unlikely sonic backdrop for Mondanile's starry take on the carpe diem genre: 'Just look up/ And follow/ Your own star/ There's nothing/ You can't do'. He stoically promises an escape from 'all this confusion and the 'doubt that rots our insides' via an angelic embrace. The slight psych influences lend some vibrancy and urgency to the languid track, hinting at the galactic promises that Mondanile nonchalantly promises the listener. There are no concrete details about the 'right direction' that he points towards, but you can get a clear idea of its characteristics: unhurried, vaguely sensual, and in possession of nothing to prove.
