Our Earthly Pleasures

Most of the bands who release a brilliant debut album, always have to come up with a difficult follow-up. This is the case with Maximo Park. "A Certain Trigger" was a 5-star dynamite!! Smart half-emotional/half cynic lyrics with cracking punky riffs. "Our Earthly Pleasures" though it catches the same feeling, it is not a grower. Some of the songs seem to be semi-finished ideas, forced to be completed tracks. The highlights of the album are in the beginning (Our Velocity, Girls Who Play Guitar, Books From Boxes --- By the monument is my personal fav track), and as the listening goes on you realize there are plenty fillers, possible b-sides (e.g. Sunblasted and Set Free). There are also some "quite" moments that should not be in this album. Slowing down so early is not so fascinating.
I am not saying this is a bad release. It is possibly one of the best releases in 2007, but it does not meet my personal expectations :-) My complaint is that there is no evolution in Maximo Park music. I expected more from my favourite band!! The standards are set too high with their first release and the comparison is just unfair.

This is the sort of band which, when you have heard them once, you will be addicted.

Amazing recorded,

Sublime live, you must see them, and listen to them, they will get your heart pulsing.

4 tracks that come to mind are "our velocity", "books from boxes", "girls who play guitars", and "the unshockable".

A MUST buy.

This is one of the best albums of this year. I thought every song on the album was great!

Cant wait for the new album.

Without doubt, album of the year. Can't believe it's not on Mercury Prize list, it's incredibly deep and thought provoking music with some dancy tracks on it too, it really has everything. Not a single bad song.

A great return from Maximo! Stand out track has to be parisian skies, amazing!