Maximo Park are well on the way to becoming one of this nation’s musical national treasures. In the last 20 years (yes, that long) they have had seven top 15 albums, the last of which, 2021’s Nature Always Wins was the most successful thus far, each of them sprouting a handful of singles and regular sold-out tours.
This level of consistency stands them out from the crowd, their style of intelligent, thoughtful, melodic indie pop has a wide audience appeal, and their high standards have marked them out as a musical equivalent of, to use a football analogy, Gareth Barry, consistently 8 out of 10’s every single time, with no critically slated albums, no massive highs or horrific lows in their oeuvre, although I’m sure that their critics (if they have any) may argue that must mean they have no stand-out classics.
So, saying all that, does the world actually need another Maximo Park record?
Well, there are some differences this time round, it’s the first time that they have all been together in a studio to make an album since 2016, Nature Always Wins very much being a ‘pandemic-era’ record. They describe themselves as being in the most reflective state they’ve been in, whilst “now recording things quickly, making fast decisions, not overly-editing ourselves.”
Singer Paul Smith says,“We’ve always tried to document the world around us at each stage of our lives while subtly nudging the music forward each time – this record continues that mission. Thematically, the record covers passion, politics, and privilege amongst other topics.”
If they are feeling down about the pressures of the modern age, then they are not showing it at the start of this album, they fly out of the traps with a couple of already released tracks, the crashing drums of ‘Your Own Worst Enemy’ and call-back to Our Earthly Pleasures-era ‘Favourite Songs’, Smith’s clear, distinctive vocal and lyrical style, where you find even single words where you would never find them elsewhere in indie-pop (validatory and gymnasium for example, just two songs in).
The first real change of mood comes on ‘Dormant ‘Til Explosion’, which features guest vocalist, Pylon’s Vanessa Briscoe Hay, a glorious exercise in a dual vocal setup, adding some variety to go along with the swirling synth energy. An acoustic strum greets the start of the more downbeat ‘Armchair View’, which sees them lyrically and musically reflective “who am I to define what I can’t see”, before its moody, Pet Shop Boys-esque outro.
Album highlight ‘Quiz Show Clue’ and the title track do their best to pick the mood back up, but it’s not quite to the same frenetic pace, and you suspect they could indeed be running out of steam, and it’s left to the pacy ‘I Knew That You’d Say That’ and ‘The Path I Chose’ (the latter with its nod to Hot Hot Heat’s ‘Bandages’ in its drum rolls and Clint Boon in its keys) to inject some of that old magic.
So, it’s yet another great Maximo Park album, no more or less than that. And in this era of extremes at both ends of the musical appreciation spectrum, then isn’t that quite the achievement?
The rating below will come as no surprise.
