Quicken The Heart

So the Maximo Park album Quicken The Heart has been receiving some mixed reviews and having picked the album up yesterday i though i'd throw my thoughts out there...blog style!

After four or five listens i've come to the conclusion that this is A) a good album, certainly better then Our Earthly Pleasures (An album i hold in high regard) and B) An album that needs (and deserves) a bit of time invested into listening (A conclusion i came to with album two as well). I think alot of the reviews that you'll see in magazines and the web will probably stumble with that fact that it will need a week to get a proper prospective on the album as a whole, and many hacks will bang out 800 words of a listen or three (but hey i'm doing the same and writing less words too lol!)

But anyway back to the album Calm is a banging track, classic Maximo Park that feels a little like a harder faster Books From Boxes, a great keyboard outro as well. Questing, Not Coasting has some of Paul Smith's best vocals, which hit their peak during the albums best chorus (Can't wait for this one live!) The Kids Are Sick Again is a track i heard a while ago and wasn't too sure on but it has grown on me in a huge way. In Another World and Overland, West of Suez also deserve a mention as strong album tracks.

So for me the album is a winner, it flows really well and the tempo and pacing are spot on. Paul Smiths reputation as a great lyrasist will be done no harm by this effort either, with some great brewding numbers like “I don’t mind losing self respect, I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again” This album is also some of their best produced work, i found especially when DJing that the first two albums are a wee bit quiet but this one is razor sharp and with all the layers of sound that are going on its just as well!

i'm seeing the band in a few weeks so i'll pop my live thoughts up then..