Note, again this review was written towards the end of May 2009.
Right, new Maximo Park (3rd album stat fans!) arrived yesterday called 'Quicken The Heart'. Now I pre-ordered which turned out to be a badly signed copy, still not sure if it says 'Thanks' or 'Thomas' on it, but I'm pretty sure it says 'Thomas'. (Edit: I have since realised this ‘Thomas’ or 'Tom' is actually the drummer off the band, man I’m such a donut sometimes!! However, still I would argue that you would expect the entire band to have made the effort to sign an album you’ve made the effort to pre-order!!)
Ok Maximo Park, I fucking loved their 1st album ‘A Certain Trigger’ and still dig it out regularly, I loved to ‘Apply Some Pressure’, draw some ‘Graffiti’, and watch the ‘Coast Is Always Changing’. The 2nd album, I felt was nowhere near as good as the 1st, but still had some good tracks on it after a few listens.
Anyway, this review is based on my 1st listen so could change, but these are my ‘1st Impressions of Earth’ (what do you mean that was a Strokes album and not Maximo Park, doh! Oh that's right Maximo's 2nd one was called ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’!)
Ok so the 1st two tracks didn't have much of an impression on me initially, but I’ve since realised they are a couple of solid tracks, ‘The Penultimate Clinch’ in particular was underappreciated on my 1st few listens. Next up the single ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ follows, to say I was sick of the song would be harsh, but again not too much to shout about on early impressions.
Track 4, ‘A Cloud Of Mystery’, is the 1st one to catch my attention, mainly because it sounds like very, very early REM which is never a bad thing in my book. Anyway, the album 'coasts' on. ‘Let's Get Clinical’ has a funky 80's bass line through it that Mark King of Level 42 fame (hmm, how do I know this stuff?) would have been proud off.
Now we get to track 10 ‘Questing, Not Coasting’ and finally a song that sounds like an old school Maximo Park tune, although so far it's taken 10 tracks to get to one!! For me this is the highlight of the album. What is it with Maximo songs and the word ‘Coast’ in them sounding so good? Anyway, the last two tracks sounded quite good too, but overall I'm not blown away by this effort yet...
'Quicken the Heart', for me gets 6 kids with chicken pox out of 10 (see the "Kids Are Sick Again!") Hopefully, the Live DVD that came with it should be better.
Anyway, all going to plan Flynndie Reviews - Blog #3 will contain an early preview of the new Idlewild album which will not be on general release for aaaaaaaaaaages yet, unless you want me to quit my poor attempts at comedy blog reviews just let me know...
Flynny
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