Maximo Park – Questing, Not Coasting
Maximo Park - Questing Not Coasting
The title of this latest release from Newcastle indie heroes Maximo Park is a fitting analogy for how their career has stalled.
But coasting they are. ‘Questing, Not Coasting’ contains none of the burning energy and pent-up sexual desire of early Park singles, with Paul Smith’s typically enthusiastic vocal failing to excite or intrigue.
The lyrics do not help; “Hey you/I know your face/Hey you/Let’s go some place” is probably a fair shout for the dullest lyric Smith has ever written. At least back when all Maximo Park songs were about girls and the chasing thereof, it was a subject most people could relate to. This doesn’t seem to be about anything at all.
Neither are there any discernible changes of pace or tone, making it a banal and bland affair. It’s not the single to capitalise on the band’s triumphant show opening up at Glastonbury, that’s for sure.
It’s a real shame. The Park are a genuinely likeable band, Smith’s boyish charm always coming across well in interviews and such like, but more pretentious affairs like this will soon diminish the honest fanbase they have sought to build over the years.
