Track Listing

1. Wraithlike
2. The Penultimate Clinch
3. The Kids Are Sick Again
4. A Cloud Of Mystery
5. Calm
6. In Another World (You'd Have Found Yourself By Now)
7. Let's Get Clinical
8. Roller Disco Dreams
9. Tanned
10. Questing, Not Coasting
11. Overland, West Of Suez
12. I Haven't Seen Her In Ages

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2229 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sunderland’s slickest indie sons, Maximo Park--the approximate musical equivalent of slapping an entire tub of hair gel and Smiths t-shirt onto a mannequin and making him dance jerkily to XTC (in a good way)--return with a third album that largely confirms everything you thought you already knew about them and heads off suspicions that their consistency had to run out of steam at some point. So Quicken The Heart is not as bloodshot or hungry as their debut A Certain Trigger nor quite as nimble as its follow up, Our Earthly Pleasures, but it is tight, blunt and effective and lowers their centre of gravity to ensure success. So "The Penultimate Clinch", "Let’s Get Clinica" and "Overland, West Of Suez" swing and rumble with a touch more menace than usual, allowing muck under their fingernails, while the gasping build-up and swelling excitement of "The Kids Are Sick Again" and repetitive agile riffing of "Wraithlike" are immediately recognisable as Maximo Park but with a more assured footing than before--due in no small part to Nick Launay’s (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Talking Heads) brawny production work. Paul Smith’s inimitably enunciated, sharply-dressed lyrics also once again help the band hold its head proudly above the parapet, hoisting formulaic new wave workouts to a place where they have a real identity. --James Berry

CD Description
The third album from Mercury Prize nominated, Geordie post-punkers Maximo Park was produced by Nick Cave/Grinderman/Yeah Yeah Yeahs producer Nick Launay, and comes four years after their last full-length studio release. Quicken The Heart is slightly darker and more groove-based than their previous efforts but overall continues the band's style of lyrically-intelligent indie-rock. The album is preceded by the single 'The Kids Are Sick Again.'

Customer Reviews

Less guitar, more synth, same brilliance
Third album - will they get so big in sound and produced that they end up sounding stadium impersonal and lose their idiosyncratic charm in the process? I didn't really fear this, since the second album, though definitely given a different production polish from A Certain Trigger, had avoided this hurdle already. But it did make me wonder where the sound would go and how they could push it further.

The answer lies in more keys, less straight guitar and more guitar which often sounds like keys (and even vocal - see "Overland" 's intro) and an unashamedly pop route which takes in early 80s infleunces (Joy Division - "Penultimate Clinch", Blondie - "Calm", Gary Numan - "Let's Get Clinical" and mid 80s A-Ha - "In Another World", "I Haven't Seen Her in Ages") without sounding slavishly derivative and still retaining Maximo's typically quixotic approach to the verse and chorus formula and key and tempo changes ("Cloud of Mystery" in paricular for the key changes). "Overland" is a masterpiece in confidence, taking the Maximo chaos to the limit - you think it's going nowhere but when you get to know it you realise the verse and chorus and it's arguably the one track where straight guitar and keys come out equal.

So, the songrwriting prevails, though possibly the pop strength makes the lyricism of gritty modern urban life a bit less immediate at first. It's interesting that though this is definitely a musical progression there are moments of old school structure and melody that take you back to A Certian Trigger but with a 2009 twist - "Let's Get Clinical" is reminsicent of "I Want You to Stay" while "I Haven't Seen Her in Ages", in its simnplicity (and folkishly beautiful close harmonies), is a "Kiss You Better" for 2009 and, like "Kiss You Better", is a sweet album closer.

In keeping with the unashamed pop feel, I've counted at least 4 songs with enthusiastic "wo-oh"s and oh-oh"s, which somehow sit easily alongside Maximo's ability to produce film noir soundtracks such as "Roller Disco Dreams" (for me, some kind of reprise in feel of Our Earthly Pleasures' "Parisian Skies"). With that and "Cloud of Mystery" I'm sure they've been listening to the music of Konami's horror strategy game series, Silent Hill! A minor minor negative point - "Questing Not Coasting" sounds as though it was recorded at a different time, its production just doesn't have the energy of the rest of the tracks - but it's a small minus in a sea of plusses.

So it's quintesssentially Maximo and yet not just more of the same, though I guess the move to less noticeable guitar and more synth might polarise opinion and leave some harking back to the rawer sound of old. Personally, I'm loving the confidence with which they have been able to deliver something so unashamedly pop. I'm sure I can hear in the tracks that Paul Smith really enjoys singing these songs - and that's singing with a full, lusty karaoke heart. Go and listen on their MySpace for the rest of this week - what have you got to lose? - and buy without regret! It's a rare feat that an album almost immediately catchy also has enough depth to keep you coming back. I've been listening on repeat the past 3 days without a hint of boredom yet and I keep discovering new elements. I can't wait to play it on a music system when I get the cd!

It's an incomparable experience to feel so excited that a new album from a band you appreciate has gone beyond your expecatations - and Maximo, for me, have done it again. Some published reviews have been kinder to this album than the last. I hope this comes off and this is the year Maximo win some high profile accolades. Surely it's time for that Mercury nomination to be turned into a winner.

not as good as I'd hoped :(
The 3rd official offering from Maximo Park was not as good as I'd hoped. There are a couple of catchy songs, but nothing approaching the brilliance of Our Velocity, Apply Some Pressure, Girls who play guitars etc.
It's ok.
I hope the next album lives up to the reputation of the previous 2.

It's a grower....
Having read the other reviews, I'd say that I was somewhere in between in my reaction to the Park's latest.

Given that the release date of this album was in my calendar for months, it would be fair to say that I was very much looking forward to a listen and expectations were high.

I must say however, that I wasn't blown away on the initial play. Yet I think this was more of a case of heightened anticipation and the inevitable comparisons with A Certain Trigger and Our Earthly Pleasures.

What the album does lack compared with those first two is that standout killer track that sucks you into the album and prompts you to compulsively play it. For me, it was Our Velocity and I Want You to Stay on the first two which got me hooked and keen to explore the other tracks.

So in that sense, I'll agree with the negative review here in saying that The Kids are Sick Again isn't the strongest single Maximo Park have ever released.

But don't despair... to nick one of Paul's lyrics "it's a grower" and my persistence has paid off in hitting the repeat button. The sound is still them (if a little less guitar heavy) and the lyrics still mark them out as one of the most insightful and poetic bands we have in this country.

There's some cracking tracks which I've really warmed to - Let's Get Clinical, I Haven't Seen Her in Ages, Calm - and I've got a funny suspicion that they will all sound great when I go and see them live tomorrow.

Whether the new tracks will match up to their predecessors however is another matter.

To put it simply, if you like the Park, you'll probably like Quicken the Heart, though you might not like it as much as their previous albums.