A live reaction to Maxïmo Park’s Quicken The Heart? Hell yes!

Maxïmo Park - Quicken The Heart

It’s overcast outside, dull as two-year-old drizzle, so what can we do to pass the time? Oh hold on there’s a lightbulb emitting its soul around the circumference of our musoish brain: let’s liveblog our reaction to the new Maxïmo Park LP, Quicken The Heart. You can live through us that way. You trust us implicitly, right? Just hit F5… coming up very very soon!!! It will begin at 12pm…

If you’re hanging on the refresh button, here’s some background – it’s genuinely the first time I’ll have listened to the new album. For real. Watch my mind unfold before your very eyes. Not just any mind, but a ‘Park afficcionado’s mind.

From what we’ve read so far, criticisms have centred around Smith’s vocals being “irksome” or something. Which is, well, a bit selfish. They’ve consistently proven themselves one of the most diversely influenced bands out there in the semi-mainstream. Their B-sides over the years are worth seeking out, so very worth seeking out – edging towards alt.country, eulogic folk paeans, way more than that. So the fact that we’re now at album three has created quite some stir round these parts.

It’s 11.59, it’s almost time…

It’s 12.00, it’s time!

(1) ‘Wraithlike’ - Oh there we go, album title referenced. We’ve heard this already, it’s available for free from the website. It’s messy rather than startling, not particularly noticeable though. It ought to get better than this… though we’ve never been one for their album openers: see ‘Girls Who Play Guitars’ and ‘Signal and Sign’, two of their weakest tracks.

(2) ‘The Penultimate Clinch’ – Infiltratingly repetitive, sounds angrier than usual MP fare. “On my return I will smother you”, I think Smith just sung. It’s quite scuzzy, the production has entirely revamped the band’s sound from this alone. It’s about a relationship coming to an end, and it’s some sort of wonderful mix of desperate and peaking (at least towards the end).

(3) ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ – Well after the last track, this is altogether much more what we’ve come to expect. Lyrically astounding, as ever, ‘Wraithlike’ has an epic build-up. It’s a tease, this one. It epitomises the haters’ misunderstandings; where ‘peers’ like Voxtrot (or I don’t know, someone else – hell, I’m under a strict time limit) use the music to reflect the lyrics, the two are almost completely at odds here. A feeling of social dissatisfaction set against a massive anthem with seemingly quadruple-tracked chanting vocals at the end is more than baffling.

(4) ‘A Cloud Of Mystery’ – Oh wow. It’s all dancey. Maybe it IS their dance album? Oh no, the twinkly keys have started. The stalkerish bass is still there though. How interesting is this – it’s about creating a cloud of mystery around yourself and how ridiculous it is. What a knack Smith has with a dictionary. “Why can’t we always meet under a cloud of mystery?” It actually sounds nothing like anything they’ve done before. This will NEVER be released as a single, surely? It’s a song of at least two parts – really staccato verses, and then  back to swirling choruses. Interesting.

(5) ‘Calm’ – What, it’s ambient? No way. Oh no just for the first few bars. At first glance it sounds a tad throwaway but it’s got a core of sadness. Calm doesn’t mean calm, it means solemn, disorientated, denying… possibly. Quicken The Heart is completely unpredictable thus far, lacking the flow of Our Earthly Pleasures entirely. It’s pretty heavy this one too. Lovely interplay between guitar and bass at the end stretch. Almost screeched out vocals at the end. Phew, exhausting.

(6) ‘In Another World (You Would’ve Found Yourself By Now)’ - It’s so bitter. Venomous.  Sounds a little like XTC initially. Lots of counter-melodies tapping away at each other, quite confusing. And maybe finally the lyrics are reflected in the instruments? Though chocka with extended metaphors, it may just be the band’s most straight-forward moment yet. It’s like “no matter what you try and do, everyone will still know who you are”. “You can change the people around you but you’ll still be at its centre”.

(7) ‘Let’s Get Clinical’ – Is this a play on ‘Let’s Get Physical’? It’s extremely primal. There’s even some “ooh”-ing sounding a bit like sex. Pretty filthy. Talking about circumnavigation. Of the body. Starry-eyed harmonies too. It’s either ineffectual or marvellous, need more listens. Heading towards the former apart from the suddenly sparse bits towards the end – masterful production all the same, moving seamlessly between textures and completely surprising me in the process.

(8) ‘Roller Disco Dreams’ - “It’s a song about the early period of a romance where you want to put on the brakes and enjoy the moment”, says Paul Smith. “YOU RESUSCITATE ME”, he screams. The fascination with time, as from Our Earthly Pleasures, is back. This album is much more personal than the last, though of course still set in the abstract. I can imagine this on the dancefloor. Sonically, the closest to A Certain Trigger that Maxïmo Park have been since, well, A Certain Trigger.

(9) ‘Tanned’ - Oh yeah, the one with the Lynryd Skynryd riffs. Massive departure. Yes, the beat does sound like The Fall, but that’s not all – the “woo-woo”-ing is all dreampoppy, then heading into a feedbacky section. This is fantastic. Again, it’s about sex. This is phenomenal, I want to listen to it over again. The keyboard stuff at the end is from another planet.

(10) ‘Questing, Not Coasting’ - Track 10, already? Wow. It’s a series of dialogue quite possibly, framed by some great rockout moments. Yes, I just said ‘rockout moments’. Oversized chorus too. Everything’s taken up at least 20 notches for the choruses and it never goes back down again, only builds and builds until it bursts. Can’t quite work out what’s going on in the narrative but that will come with time. Is it essential? Not sure yet.

(11) ‘Overland, West Of Suez’ - Ow. Dirty. It’s all ’60s. The backing vocals are delirious, there’s just so much feedback. Is this really the same band that first got noticed with ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’? It’s extremely dense, there’s truly lots and lots going on here. And then it goes psychedlic at the end, how unexpected. Just briefly, mind. Boundless. I haven’t been listening to the lyrics actually, it’s too much for one listen.

(12) ‘I Haven’t Seen Her In Ages’ - Oh no I’ve got the fear again – I haven’t usually liked last tracks on Maxïmo Park LPs either (see ‘Parisian Skies’ and ‘Kiss You Better’). And it’s all about time and relationships again – maybe it’s a slow-burner… why do they always have a completely breathtaking penultimate track and then restore sonic balance with something far calmer sounding? Maybe I’ve misinterpreted. This one is superfluous, at least for now.

Overall verdict? Mostly fantastic, more instant than the rest, more complex, more variation, a couple of tracks of filler (the bookstops, once again). Forget the criticisms about the band being stuck in a sound (and “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it) - this IS a departure, at least at some moments. Be excited, it’s as much of a progression as you’ll have come to expect. I’m going to listen to it again now, in a more private domain…