Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger

Released 16th May, Warp Records

What I thought then...
I remember this being an album that was very easy to listen to on repeat. It was a tight album which was a good showcase for “the Paul Epworth sound” - crisp percussion and the rhythm section always prominent in the mix. I’d always look forward to acting out the dance routine we made up for Apply Some Pressure. Almost definite I had the album poster on my bedroom wall. They always had interesting email newsletters too, obviously written by Paul Smith and not some intern.

What I think now...
The drums in the opening track Signal and Sign sum up the urgency on this record - at 39 minutes it does not stick around. The first few tracks clatter by, shoving into each other for attention. I don’t think there’s a bad song on here - a remarkably confident début that has barely aged at all.

Standout Track
Apply Some Pressure, still a powerful song, dance routine and all. And The Coast Is Always Changing, which I always pictured as an 8-bit remix for some reason.

Live Memories
I saw them around the time the album was released at Norwich Waterfront on an NME tour with the Cribs supporting, which also would have been around my 20th birthday. Reading 2006 rings a bell too, they might have closed the festival for us. Paul Smith was always a charmer, frantically reading lyrics from a notebook.

What Happened Next?
Immediately after this album came Our Velocity and their second record. After this, I drifted away. They’re still going, now five albums in with the sixth on the way, but they’ve not been on my radar for a while. They even played York around my birthday one year but that passed me by. Of all the bands I’m going to be writing about, it’s interesting that Maxïmo Park are the only ones (so far) to succumb to The Nostalgia Tour, playing a series of shows performing this album in full. These kind of gigs are a mixed bag. On the one hand, you’re guaranteed to hear all the songs you want to hear. But it’s also a bit of an admission from both band and fans that it was all downhill after album #1. Many acts actively avoid this, and I completely understand why. But nostalgia sells. Just look at Take That.

Next Time: Everything is temporary these days...

Previously: Introduction