album of the week: quicken the heart

This week's song of the week is a whole album. Shut up, it's my blog and I do what I want. (Well actually I was just going to pick a song off the album, but I couldn't find the one I wanted on the music playlist maker thing, so I settled for a medley sort of mashup of all the songs on the album. Deal with it.)

Maxïmo Park's third studio album was officially released on Monday (when I wanted to have this blog entry posted...ah well, such is life), although I've been listening to it on their myspace practically nonstop for about a week already. At first listen, I liked the album but not as much as the previous two. And then I remembered that I thought the same thing about the second album but it ended up really growing on me. I think maybe I just have to take some time to get used to new things.

Quicken the Heart has a very dreamy quality to it. Like Our Earthly Pleasures before it, it isn't as unfinished or unhinged sounding as their debut, although the first two tracks have traces of early Park in them. "Wraithlike" is slightly frantic (there are even sirens in the background) and you get a strange sense that the song is constantly trying to catch up with the beat. "The Penultimate Clinch" starts off somewhat uninspiring, but by the time the chorus comes around you're bopping around the room.

The third track is titled "The Kids Are Sick Again" and it's the first single released, and it's quite a bit more negative than their usual sound. It's about a never ending cycle of adolescent summers doing fuck all, basically. I can relate to "the comforting ache of the summer holidays / pointless days pining, afternoons whining", seeing as I really don't want to go back home when this term is over. This summer will be boring. But anyways...

"A Cloud of Mystery" hasn't really grabbed me yet. It's a decent song but not one of my favorites on the album. "Calm" and "In Another World (You Would've Found Yourself By Now)" are interesting to listen to back to back, because "Calm" starts out in a slow dreamy happy sort of mode and then turns darker, while "In Another World" is dark and sort of threatening at first but then a major chord kicks off the chorus and it's all happy and dancey. "You'll still end up on a revolving dance floor in the middle of the river" is one of my favorite moments on the album. And yes, that lyric sounds incredibly random, but the band said it's a reference to a weird night club in Newcastle that was on a boat on the Tyne.

"Let's Get Clinical" is a great song. Not a whole lot of symbolism here; just a lighthearted song about doing the dirty. I first heard a live version of this song on youtube and I was so excited to hear the official studio version, and at first I was a little bit disappointed because it was slower than I had imagined. However, I've grown to love it just as much. The next one, "Roller Disco Dreams", was the song that I wanted to use as the SOTW. It's a sad sort of regretful song about growing up, having adult relationships, and wanting to hang on to childhood. The soaring vocals at the chorus are fantastic, and "if it's a grower / why can't we take things slower?" is a sentiment that I think most people have felt at one time or another.

"Tanned" is another dreamy sort of song about happy lazy summer days. Nothing too earth shattering, but I do love the lyrical rhythm in the verses. "Questing, Not Coasting" is a slow song, but it's one of my favorites of the new bunch. The "Hey you, what's new?" part always makes me smile, and I love how it ends with the "thanks for coming by". This is another song with an emotive chorus that sort of soars above the rest of the song. Love it.

The last two songs "Overland, West of Suez" and "I Haven't Seen Her In Ages" aren't really the best songs, so the album kind of fizzes out rather than going out with a punch. That's not to say they're bad, and I'm sure in a few months I'll love them just as much as the rest, but that's just my first sort of impression.

However, I absolutely adore the bonus track "Lost Property". It sounds a bit quirky with just drums and a keyboard, and since there isn't much in the way of musical background the lyrics are free to take centre stage. And the lyrics in this song are some of the best of the whole album. "When I ask how are you / maybe I just mean how am I? / I line up my complaints / and cram them into my reply" is hilarious; we all know people like that, don't we? Also "take me to nostalgics anonymous" is a really strange thing to say, but it made me crack up when I heard it because it sounds so much like me. I'm always going on about one thing or another from the past and feeling all nostalgic.

So yeah...son of godzilla, that was a lot of waffling. I just get excited about new albums, kay? Don't judge. Overall verdict: I'm very satisfied with the release. It's put me in a very good mood, which I'm hoping will last through to the end of exams.