If you've been tuning in here for any length of time, you'll know this reviewer's been wrestling with the pros and cons of Newcastle's apparent new indie saviours MAXIMO PARK for the past six months or so.
So let's examine the stories for the prosecution and defence thus far. On the down side, MP have a tendency to sound like excitable clones of The Futureheads. Yes, there are worse bands you could rip off, but the 'Heads refreshing originality soon pales when xeroxed by a lesser band. Secondly, there's the band's look, and singer Paul Smith in particular. There are those supposedly in the know who feel he is the new Ian Curtis, while there are the discerning who feel he looks like a cross between Alan Partridge and one of the Bash Street Kids. Thirdly, there's the music itself, which has been frustratingly patchy thus far, with only flashes of inspiration poking through some grey clouds of indie mundanity.
The case for the defence rests on one singnificant factor: Maximo Park's ability to release their best songs as singles. Yes, that didn't work with "Apply Some Pressure" I grant you, but it certainly did with "The Night I Lost My Head" and even more so with belting previous single "Graffiti". And with "Going Missing" they've made the sensible decision of releasing what - to these ears at least - is the best song they've recorded to date.
I listen to "Going Missing" and I wonder why they can't do this more often. It's got just about everything a great single needs: a taut and economic guitar hook leading the way; a smouldering build and great teamwork from the band that transcends the sum of the parts and Smith actually getting on with being a great frontman with presence. Apart from a fine vocal, he also weighs in with an achingly clever lyric that comes full circle with the great couplet "I sleep with my hands across my chest, I dream of you with someone else". It all adds up to something that's a cut above and the sound of a band simply being themselves, letting go emotionally and not giving a shit which way fashion's blowing. Which is surely at least partly what this should be about, shouldn't it?
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B-side and new track "A19" hearteningly confirms the good impression. Recorded in a local Newcastle studio, it sounds hungry and aggressive and gets to the point without too much in the way of the de rigeur quirky bits. Not too surprisingly, it's described in the press blurb as a "live favourite." Yup, makes sense.
One swallow doesn't make a summer, and a couple of bonzer singles are still only enough to make me think of Maximo Park as a potentially great band with very large strings attached. But they've got it in' em if they apply themselves, rather than simply some pressure on the NME and co.
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