Of the many British groups that started recycling post-punk from the early eighties roughly from 2005 onwards, Scottish Maxïmo Park was perhaps one of the most stylish. On their debut album A Certain Trigger (2005) they recalled the heyday of groups such as XTC and Gang Of Four with a lot of fire and energy. The group's right to exist is mainly due to the charismatic frontman Paul Smith and their
… ability to write catchy songs. The latter seems to expand the group a bit more on successor Our Earthly Pleasures. The boundless energy of their debut was somewhat curtailed and the tempo turned down to make the angular and mostly cheerful songs do the work more. Smith is thus given the space to unpack while still sounding like a Scottish Andy Partridge (XTC). In the series of 'difficult second albums by bands that were heavily hyped on their debut' Maxïmo Park certainly crosses the line with this next collection of bouncy and intelligent post-punk. (MR)more
