Maxïmo Park
Our Earthly Pleasures

THE REVIEW

2007 may perhaps be remembered as the year of the second album from English bands that had already made a breakthrough with their debut. After Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, and Kaiser Chiefs, here are Maximo Park with "Our Earthly Pleasure".

From the first listen, it seems that the band from Newcastle fully confirms the characteristics of their first success: a melancholic but fast and immediate British rock-pop, distinct from electronics and keyboards.

The album opens with the spontaneous "Girls Who Play Guitar", continuing with "Our Velocity", the first "bold" single with frequent changes of rhythm. "Books From Boxes" is among the best tracks but opens a "contemplative" phase of the album: "Russian Literature", "Karaoke Plays", and "Your Urge" have gloomy and wintry, perhaps a bit depressing, sounds. Only "The Unshockable", the most rock track, the excellent "By The Monument", and "A Fortnight's Time" with its '80s sound break this pattern that drags on until the end where "Sandblasted And Set Free" stands out excellently.

Maximo Park deserves credit for trying to keep the quality of their music high without distorting it to try to appeal to everyone. Although at first glance their style seems unchanged, "Our Earthly Pleasure" turns out to be a more complex work than the previous one: the songs are hard to remember and lack the repetitive choruses or danceable tunes we heard in "A Certain Trigger." With their indie and intellectual look, the six led by the charismatic Paul Smith are immediately serious, and with "Our Earthly Pleasure" they confirm themselves as a "mature" band that will probably not be considered just a flash in the pan.