Quicken The Heart - Maximo Park (full review)

[Paddy]

So the Geordie’s return with their third album titled Quicken The Heart. Music experts had already put this album into the flop category before it had been released due to the downturn in popularity to alternative and “Indie” artists as seen by the poor charting of “Franz Ferdinand”, “Starsailor” and “Doves”. Will this suppress the downturn or just keep the fashion going?

Quicken The Heart starts with the pre-release download of “Wraithlike”, this is a quicker paced, more guitar based track, a good opener but in all fairness nothing out the ordinary. This is followed by “The Penultimate Clinch” which is the first of a deeper and mature sounding Maximo Park stance. The lyrics, as per Maximo Park style, are of real class, nothing shoddy like you can find in other music, especially American. The use of vocabulary is fully functional to bring real depth to each and every song. This is a real forte that was used in “Our Earthly Pleasure”.
The third track is the début single from the album named “The Kids Are Sick Again”; a very catchy and characteristic single which I have previously reviewed.
The fourth track, “A Cloud Of Mystery” brings back the newer Maximo theme of maturing, which is continued by “Calm”. A real feature is the maturity of the lyrics, instrument use and lead singer; Paul Smith. When compared from the first album “A Certain Trigger” it has a real contrast. As time has passed away the band have learnt more then basic music to more complex techniques, especially when you consider Paul Smith wasn’t auditioned for the lead singer role, but was actually spotted by the rest of the band on a karaoke machine!
The rest of the album follows a similar suite, so if you don’t like similarity in an album this is not one to focus one, but it is still top quality music. It would be nice if a little bit of “A Certain Trigger” had been re-introduced into this album, but a band cannot stand still, and that for sure is one thing Maximo Park does not do, always changing little features.

On last point is that it is one album which grows on you like a rash, but this rash is one you love, like a lovebite rash!

Pick of the pops is "Let's Get Clinical"

Quicken The Heart as a whole album is shaded out by the older material, but still receives a:

8/10

[Razzle Dazzle]

and i got my hands on the version with a bonus (hour long) live dvd for just a quid more

[Paddy]

That is true, I never buy albums with DVD's on though, I won't ever watch them.

Music is to be listened to when bored on a bus or revising.

[ukswings]

aximo Park - Quicken the Heart

On both sides of the Atlantic, indie music continues to change into something different. Evolution is taking place with everyone from Bloc Party to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Not Maximo Park, though. They are unrepentantly indie. There are crashing guitars, drums actually played by a human, and clever, pithy observations about life, and - in Maximo's case - girls.

I would imagine that the group can introduce nearly every song they've ever done with the words "This is about this girl I knew".

That's not necessarily a bad thing. The lyrics of any given Maximo song are usually worth checking out; again, there are several clever, pithy observations.

The reason that Maximo has stayed indie is because they're so darn good at it. On this new album, from "Wraithlike" to "I Haven't Seen Her In Ages", there are guitars, guitars, and more guitars. There are some rather hollow, plaintive synths backing up nearly every song as well.

With all of this, though, the group avoid sounding homogeneous. Each song has its own character. Some are successful, and some are, well, less so.

The good ones include the single "The Kids Are Sick Again", which has some filtered vocals, crashing guitars, and a tentative synth. It's also got a hook that's centered around the words "I don't mind", and it kicks proverbial butt. "Calm" is, coincidentally enough, more calm than much of the album, and features a great vocal and acoustic (!) guitars (at first, anyway).

The next single to be released, "Questing, Not Coasting", is one of the best on the album. Again, Paul Smith's vocals stand out, and the chiming guitars cast a spell. Closing track "I Haven't Seen Her In Ages" is insistent and almost pretty, complete with the lyrics "She ripped me to shreds".

This is the group that has three songs in the past few years that are among my favorites : "Our Velocity", "Books From Boxes", and "Girls Who Play Guitar". Again, they're all about a girl someone knew, but they're poignant and relevant.

Unfortunately, there's not really much on this album to match them. There are several songs which could be classified as generic. While I was making notes for this review, I couldn't find much to say about "In Another World", "Tanned", and "Overland, West of Suez" other than "another indie romp about a girl". The songs are not awful, per se, but they're forgettable.

All of this makes me think that maybe Maximok should have waited a while before releasing another album. Maybe a little more time spent honing their craft, so that the absolute best of what they can do was tweaked out, and the record would have been more successful?

"Let's Get Clinical" would have made that imaginary album, but probably without the soft-loud dynamics two-thirds of the way through. "Roller Disco Dreams" wouldn't have made the cut, with it's buzzy minor chords and distorted indie guitar tracking the synth. The album would have had "A Cloud Of Mystery", with it's choppy rhythm, but might skip "The Penultimate Clinch", which sounds muddy.

Since it's Maximo Park, though - the best of modern indie - I can't rate the album too low. Here's hoping that the band wait a couple of years before their next release.

"Quicken the Heart" gets a 6.5 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.

[Paddy]

Thats a tad harsh Jim . 6.5/10 is Franz level atm.

MP are definately more 8. I still claim anyway.

[Panda]

I've always liked Maximo Park. Haven't heard much of the new stuff yet but I look forward to it.

FASCINATING FACT: Despite being formed and based in Newcastle, none of them are actually Geordies. Singer Paul Smith is from Billingham, just north of Middlesbrough.

[Maximo Mark]

Well considering my username is based on their name I'm obviously (or was obviously...) a fan. I listened to this album three times and found pretty much nothing worth listening to. 4/10. Far more much better music out there at the moment for me to care in the slightest...

[ukswings]

Since my initial assessment of this album, I've begun to appreciate it a bit more. I still won't cry "Masterpiece!" at it, but I'm willing to amend my initial 6.5 score to a strong 7.

"Questing, Not Coasting" has become one of my favorite songs of the year.