Quicken The Heart, Slow The Energy

They got me with A Certain Trigger, in fact Apply Some Pressure is one of my all time favorites. I was further impressed with the band's talent upon the release of their cleaner and well produced album entitled, Our Earthly Pleasures. Every song on the album had an effect on me, such an effect that I nearly damaged the disc from too many spins on my walkman. It was at this point that I counted Maximo Park as one of my favorite bands. I raved about them to friends, on forums, and on Last.fm. Naturally, I was extremely excited to hear that they would be releasing a new album in 2009. However, I must admit, that I was disappointed with the band's newest release.

Quicken The Heart clocks in around 38 minutes, with no songs reaching four minutes in length. This is nothing new for the band though, seeing a similar trend on the previous albums. In the past, short songs didn't mean a lack of quality, however the songs included on Quicken The Heart beg to differ. The opening track, Wrathlike opens with a promising guitar riff then quickly loses its energy as the song continues. The rest of the album loosely follows the same formula except for a handful of tracks including A Cloud Of Mystery, In Another World (You'd Have Found Yourself By Now), and Let's Get Clinical.

Although Quicken The Heart is not a horrible album by any means, it seems that Maximo Park did not progress as expected. They began with an attractively unique, raw, and energetic sound that has just disintegrated between albums. A fan can only hope that Maximo Park will focus on what made them such an entertaining act before they progress onto writing new material.

If you've never had the chance to listen to Maximo Park, check out these videos for Apply Some Pressure and Graffiti from their 2005 release, A Certain Trigger.