John Maus is an American musician, composer, thinker, and singer who has been active through the early 2000s to present day. He creates dreamy, experimental, synth-pop music rooted in 70s art-pop and new-wave. After releasing compilation albums Blastical Chapel and Love Is Real in 2006, he released his debut studio album Songs in 2007 which explored themes of ecstatic joy and existential dread. Maus then followed up with the albums We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (2011) and A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material (2012). His latest album Screen Memories (2017) was rated one of the best albums of 2017, particularly praised for its lush, shimmering pop sound. Writing for The Guardian, Eve Barlow described the album as "a work of luminous and irresistible force".