Newcastle-upon-Tyne’ Maximo Park got noticed with their debut album A Certain Trigger. Unusually signed by Warp Records despite being a straight indie pop band, they also managed to release a debut that stood out amonst the plethora of similar sounding offerings coming from bands all over the UK at that point. A Certain Trigger had a brash charm – Geordie accents, jangle-angst guitars, snappy drum fills and a lovely sense of longing, haphazardly rolled into an addictively under-produced flurry of an album. A string of singles dominated indie FM radio for a while, but due to the albums missing a few steps in the mastering, ‘Apply Some Pressure’ and ‘Grafitti’ never really tore the rock clubs carpet up.
Our Earthly Pleasures fixes that right up – a massive step up in production and engineering which is instantly noticeable. Due to the new, cleaner and clearer sound, initially it appears as if their brash charm had been thrown out to make way for crisper guitars and bigger bass. Happily, that’s not entirely the case. Whilst the songs are more mellow, and all but one directly sing to a girl about some part or other of a relationship, nestled in perfectly are the bursts of angular guitar, the tension releasing drum fills and the not-so-stock song structure and delivery. Delightful melodies, unexpected vocal harmonies and some captivating interplay between the rhythm, keys and string sections bake together to get Paul Smith’ very affable situations stuck in your head, humming as you walk along the street, wondering if you will be able to meet up with that girl near the monument in the square… If A Certain Trigger caught Maxïmo Park being hasty and frenetic to a fault, Our Earthly Pleasures has had more time, more recording sessions and more experience thrown in, to complete one of the most consistent, entertaining indie pop record in quite a while.
Alistair Erskine
