A groups first album is their debut, anything can happen. Sophomore albums are often regarded as the ones that cement a bands place in music. Third albums can be the perfect opportunity for a band to slack, to have a misstep before recovering with a successful forth release. Maximo Park decided to skip this step, extending their library with ‘Quicken The Heart‘, another sonically pleasing collection.

Upon first listen of the album it’s obvious why ‘The kids are sick again’ was chosen as the first single. A drum pattern that carries a similar feel to ‘Halfway Home’ supports the verse before breaking into a chorus that begs to be played at summer house parties. Cranking out another anthem on ‘Lets get clinical’, singer Paul Smith pads the bridge with Oos and Aahs as he proclaims that he would ‘Like to map your body out/north to south’. Maximo displays the rock part of their pop/rock genrenization on ‘Tanned’ with Lucas Wooller brightening up the track with arpeggiated bleeps and bloops, complementing the guitar part that, for some reason, reminds me of Incubus. Maximo uses their ability of translating feelings into audio to keep the mood high for the remainder of the album, but the ability to convey feeling to an audience is an a skill that most bands would use more to their advantage. Maximo uses it sparingly, choosing to stick to the script of ‘The Kids are Sick Again’ throughout the album, save for a couple of tracks.

With most of the tracks on Maximo‘s album clocking in at around 3 minutes and though they kept the tracks short, it still doesn’t save them from repeating themselves throughout the album, to the point that by the final song you feel like you’ve heard it all before. It’s a fine line between an album being cohesive and being repetitive. On ‘Quicken The Heart‘ Maximo rides the fence, almost tilting into the repetitive side, but for most people this album will be repetitive anyway after being shortened to 5 tracks for their Ipod.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If you liked the drums you heard on this album check out how to play drums for beginners for a rundown on the drums.

CD Review - Maximo Park10.0101

Share This Post