I think my initial exposure to Maxïmo Park was at my first job working in the ad design department for a local newspaper. Staff would rip albums to the Macs and share the MP3s within the office, a great way to pool our record collections, if questionable ethically in hindsight. Each pay day would result in being able to listen to your colleagues’ monthly selections.
The album’s opener Signal and Sign sets out the stall perfectly for Maxïmo Park’s songwriting, a mix of angsty and reflective lyrics, matched with perfect sing a long and danceable choruses. All set to a great set of rhythms and guitar riffs, along with a dose of keyboards to break it up.
You can see why from the mid noughties onwards singles from the band would be, and still are, staples of indie nights across the land. Great songs to sing a long on your own in a dark club, or dance making up actions with a mate. Such as Apply Some Pressure’s questioning “What happens when you apply some pressure?” which is the main set ender for their current tour, showing itself as one of the best songs on the album.
Paul Smith’s North East accent might add some authenticity o the line “nothing happens in my town” on Graffiti. Postcard of a Painting has a lovely bass line under more of Smith’s angst laden romance lyrics. Limassol opens with a fantastic sci fi sticky synth sound, before being joined by the rest of the band.
The Coast is Always Changing is a slightly slower paced start, with nice jangly chords, speeding up during the chorus. The Night I Lost My Head brings more moments for actions whilst singing along, perfect to sing the chorus with a friend or lover, while pointing to your head.
Once a Glimpse is the only song the band didn’t play at Bristol or Cambridge on their tour celebrating the album, interesting for the song that contains the album’s title in its lyrics. Possibly subbed out for B-Side from that era A19?
Acrobat is the album’s penultimate track and slows things down quite considerably, with a spoken word intro from Smith, which also serves as the opening song for the band’s encore in their current live setlist. Followed on the album by Kiss You Better, which opens with woos and oohs and serves as a short 2 min full stop to the album.
Overall the album is 39 mins of fantastic 2-3 min indie pop songs, that still serve as the backbone to a fantastic setlist or great indie night playlist, even 21 years later. The band also still play them with full force, whilst Smith bounds around the stage, so you will enjoy the songs in any format live or recorded.