Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures

It may not be obvious at first glance, but with a bit of thought it’s fairly apparent that Maximo Park are a different prospect to their peers. Appearing in the unlikely guise of a chart bothering guitar band on Warp, they may have started off life as that other band from the North East, but between then and now their stature has grown more than any dare have hoped. Coming across as both smart and fearless in the face of a good pop tune, debut album ‘A Certain Trigger’ and a triumphant tour sandwiched between The Cribs and Kaiser Chiefs placed them firmly at the head of a queue of ace new British pop bands.

Since then, of course, we’ve had Arctic Monkeys and a rush of second albums from that same bunch of 2005 vintage indie heroes claiming number ones in the process. One might have expected Maximo Park to have dumbed down and popped up. They haven’t.

‘Our Earthly Pleasures’, in some circles, will be dismissed as boring. It’s fair to say there’s not an obvious single to match ‘Apply Some Pressure’ or ‘Graffiti’, but what it lacks in immediacy it makes up for elsewhere.

After all, it’d be hard to call ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ exactly difficult. A stabbing little gem, it’s most certainly Maximo, but there’s a certain subtlety which previously went unnoticed, jaunting between angular and harmonic at will. ‘Boxes From Boxes’ is down the same lines; full of sunny melancholy, a pretty much full on juxtaposition to lead single ‘Our Velocity’, the closest thing to a natural progression from ‘A Certain Trigger’ you’re likely to find.

Comparisons will no doubt be drawn with compatriots The Futureheads’ sophomore effort. Less in your face doesn’t always mean commercial suicide, however. ‘Russian Literature’, for example, may break down into discordant keyboard stabs from time to time, but like The Phantom Of The Opera turned climactic indie pop, it’s easily a match for anything proceeding it. ‘Karaoke Plays’ and ‘Your Urge’ equally both show a band smoothing out their sound, but if anything the delicate tendencies show Maximo Park to be even better, the latter twinkling and twisting like the best Field Music have to offer. Plus, if you’ve got a track like ‘By The Monument’ up your sleeves, complete with handclaps, you can afford to take a couple of risks. They’re on the right label for it, after all.

‘Our Earthly Pleasures’ won’t be the album most were expecting, but any who feel disheartened by such revelations do Paul Smith and co a disservice. Given time it’s at the very least a worthy successor, and most probably a hint at the potential to come. Bloc Party may be the next Radiohead to some, but Maximo Park are the next Maximo Park. You can’t say better than that.