Maxïmo Park – Risk to Exist
There’s always been a bit of a political slant to Maxïmo Park’s songwriting. That said, you suspect that there’s a couple of presumptions that are going to be made about Risk to Exist that will need dispelling straight out of the gate. For a start, this is not an aggressively political record. There’s plenty of that kind of territory explored on this sixth full-length from the Geordie quartet – more so than ever before – but for the most part, it’s filtered through the kaleidoscope of the personal; the strength of relationships in oppressive times on I’ll Be Around, or the gulf between expectations and reality on The Hero. The latter’s a lively rebuke to compromise, and one that’s deceptively complex musically – burbles of synth and flashes of brass all contribute to the most infectious Maxïmo track in a while.
Elsewhere, this very much feels like the cleanest-sounding album the band have made in years, and the punchy production makes up for shortfalls in the songwriting itself in places – particularly on the post-Brexit lament of The Reason I Am Here, which is carried off with just about enough gusto to disguise the lack of direction in its structure. There’s less of an exploratory bent to the record than there was last time out, on 2014's Too Much Information, and when there is a touch of that ambition, the band often revert to their comfort zone too quickly – see the manner in which the staccato verses on the title track lapse back into an arms-in-the-air chorus, for instance.
The slinky Respond to the Feeling, as near as Maxïmo have ever come to dance-punk, is a stand-out. There’s an irony in the repeated line 'you’ve got to take a risk before that feeling goes' – sonically, the band probably haven’t taken enough of them on this album; the highlights come when they nudge themselves towards the leftfield.
Still, the album’s measured political message is carried off with assurance and poise, the on-the-nose misstep of Work and Then Wait excepted. That we still have a prominent indie rock outfit capable of pulling that off is reassuring in the current climate.
Listen to: The Hero, Respond to the Feeling
Buy Maximo Park - Risk To Exist on LP/CD from Norman Records