Apply Some Pressure

Maxïmo Park is all about British pride. They do have a very retro, very, very British feel to them. The male lead voice (Paul Smith) is a very dominant part of the music. The songs are all fast paced and upbeat. The cool thing is the band transitions between lots of different melodies making the songs really interesting. The repetition of the melodies ties the songs together. All the tracks are fun and poppy and London-y. There all good, nothing is stellar though. No FCCs.
Track 1: Fast paced, upbeat, very British. Very 80’s feel. Nice transitions between different melodies. Sounds a little like The Darkness. Climaxes at very end. Fades out abruptly.
Track 2: Starts off with chords and pauses, then arpeggios with guitar. Lots of different types of melodies. This works really well. He repeats a lot of the melodies and then brings in a new one to give you something new to listen to. Voice is very dominant, carries a lot of the song.
Track 3: Starts immediately with voice. Nice lyrics. More guitar and emphasis on background music in this. Lots of build and then back into melody. Sounds really familiar.
Track 4: Much more pounding, repeated melody. Harder chords, less flow. Speeds up about 30 secs in. Drums big. More emphasis on instruments because so much repeated melody. Speeds up again about 1:40 in. Fades out.
- Julia 05/08/05