Maximo Park Return With New Lp 'Quicken the Heart'
On Special Edition CD+DVD, CD, LP & Download via Warp Records on May 11th March 12, 2009, 12:23 PM Views: 664
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 In the spring, Maximo Park are back with their third album, “Quicken the Heart”. And rarely has a record been so aptly named.
For a band that has achieved so much, Maximo Park are constantly pushing ever onwards and upwards, darting off in new directions and exploring new dimensions of their sound, with this record being the latest proof. Recorded and produced in LA by Nick Launay (who has also worked with luminaries such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave and Talking Heads among others), “Quicken the Heart” is yet another astonishing step forward for the band, and a testament to just how far they have come since the early days. If they were reaching for the stars on previous records, here they are reaching for the heavens, building a skyscraping monument of dreamy synths, galvanising rock and roll and buoyant pop. One of the only bands to avoid the laddish cliches of the age, they have maintained their assault on the mainstream whilst retaining every ounce of their independence. Being on an independent label, they have been allowed the time and space to craft an album of ingenious hooks and memorable lyrics that search for romance in everyday life.
“Wraithlike” gets the album off to a jolting start, with Paul Smith’s soaring vocals underpinned by a bedrock of grittier instrumentation (courtesy of guitarist Duncan Lloyd, bassist Archis Tiku, keyboardist Lukas Wooller and drummer Tom English, all in looser, more spontaneous form than before). From then on it is a fast and furious ride, the band locked into a sound that is at once more urgent, vigorous and yet more lush and accomplished than ever before. The simply gorgeous, densely layered “Roller Disco Dreams” lives up to its title quite spectacularly, while “A Cloud of Mystery” shows off what Smith and company do so well – wedding achingly lovelorn, eloquently poetic lyrics to casually infectious tunes. But it is with the rousing “The Kids Are Sick Again” that Maximo Park may have just hit upon one of those mythical immortal anthems: a full-blooded, heart-swelling rallying cry against the stifling conformity and normalcy of modern society that will have grown men pumping fists into the air and kids rushing en masse to the dancefloor/ streets/ etc when its opening strains are heard the world over.
This is another milestone for Maximo Park, and we are talking milestones here, not merely achievements. Their first album “A Certain Trigger” was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Their second, “Our Earthly Pleasures” hit Number 2 in the UK charts. They sold 12,000 tickets for their legendary show at the Newcastle Arena in 2007 (stunning footage of which can be viewed on the special edition of the album), and not only repeated that feat this year when their new UK dates were announced, but bested them: Two Newcastle Academy sold out in 10 minutes, the Leeds and Manchester shows sold out in less than 30 minutes and all 4,900 tickets for Brixton Academy went within 60 minutes; proof positive that the band are clasped close to the nation’s hearts indeed. “Quicken the Heart” is an astounding step in the evolution for one of Britain’s best-loved bands, at once a consolidation of their brilliance and the perfect synthesis of innovation and dynamism. A milestone, indeed.
Visit Maximo Park now to download free Mp3 of ‘Wraithlike’. Available for 2 weeks only.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Wraithlike
02. The Penultimate Clinch
03. The Kids Are Sick Again
04. A Cloud Of Mystery
05. Calm
06. In Another World (You Would've Found Yourself By Now)
07. Let’s Get Clinical
08. Roller Disco Dreams
09. Tanned
10. Questing, Not Coasting
11. Overland, West Of Suez
12. I Haven't Seen Her In Ages
MAXIMO PARK on MySpace Music
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Maximo Park - Stay [Video]
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