As the best of the early- '00s U.K. post-punk wave that counted Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and the Futureheads among its luminaries, Maximo Park found itself as unexpected underdogs in the crowded scene.
The band barely made a dent in the U.S. market despite releasing its near-perfect debut "A Certain Trigger" to largely positive reviews.
Singles like "Apply Some Pressure" and "Graffiti" had twisting melodies and delirious lyrics that permanently buried themselves into lucky listeners' heads. Charismatic front man Paul Smith, who looks like a physics major and dances like an crazy man, put a spastic face on the band's chaotic sound.
Maximo Park is also among the last of its peers to attempt the difficult sophomore record, and on "Our Earthly Pleasures," the band fared only slightly better than the others.
The first mistake was ditching Trigger super-producer Paul Epworth, who worked on all of the aforementioned bands' debut albums, as well as The Rapture's spectacular "Pieces of the People We Love." The band chose Gil Norton as his replacement, whose comparatively soft touch on albums from Pixies, Jimmy Eat World and Morningwood is a poor fit for Maximo Park's frenetic, angular sound.
The mellowed-out feel of "Our Earthly Pleasures" is surprising, especially after spectacular early first single "Our Velocity" distilled everything great about the band's debut into less than 3 1/2 minutes.
"Our Velocity," which follows fine leadoff track "Girls Who Play Guitars" on the album, packs a half-dozen songs' worth of hooks in its tiny frame. Full of off-kilter lyrics, blaring guitars and synths that sound like Devo on speed, it's an early candidate for song of the year.
Things only go downhill from there. Lazy, meandering drums, words and chords replace the laser-focused lyrics and complex tempos of airtight "A Certain Trigger."
Cheesy piano riffs mar "Russian Literature" and others. Late-album highlight "Nosebleed" hits appropriately hard, but the rest of the album is almost resolutely unmemorable.
The punk-to-pastoral shift doesn't hurt "Our Earthly Pleasures" as much as on the Futureheads' genuinely disappointing "News and Tributes," but it still seems like backpedaling from a band that has forsaken perfect pop craft for boring maturity.
For a group as talented as Maximo Park, is more of the same too much to ask?
"Our Earthly Pleasures" is available now as a U.K. import and releases stateside May 8 with two bonus tracks.
Reach the reporter at: samuel.gavin@asu.edu.
