Didn't Quicken My Heart (Quicken The Heart - Maximo Park)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	Quicken The Heart - Maximo Park
Date:	05/09/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A couple of decent tracks with a retro 80s feel

Disadvantages: Nothing really stands out

One of the great clichés in the music industry is that of "the difficult second album", the struggle to live up to expectations second time around after a promising debut. Maxïmo Park has this struggle when coming to follow up the Mercury Music Prize nominated "A Certain Trigger". Their second album, "Our Earthly Pleasures" more than answered any questions on that score, but could "Quicken the Heart" keep the momentum going?

The album certainly starts well, with the driving guitar riff to "Wraithlike" giving the song a lovely up-tempo indie-rock feel. The track in general is reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand or the Fratellis, although there is a strange break towards the end that does interrupt the flow of the song a little. But it's certainly a lively start to the album.

There's quite a dark, but quite simple, bass intro to "The Penultimate Clinch" that sounds a little like the White Stripes. Once the guitars come in, this gets a little buried and it loses the influence. There's a slightly dark, sometimes nonsensical quality to the lyric that reminds me a little of Joy Division, but the song has more of an indie-rock influence to it. It's not a bad song, but does pale a little in comparison with the opening track.

"The Kids Are Sick Again" was the first single from the album and it seems like a decent enough choice. It's another dark tune, with the keyboard sounds working nicely together with a driving indie-rock backing early on and combining well when the song slows a little. The chorus is in a strange place, coming at the end of the song rather than between the verses, but it works very well, except that the best part of the song comes just as its ending.

The dark, fuzzy bass line is back in the intro to "A Cloud of Mystery", although it may be the keyboard producing it this time around. There's a neat little guitar riff that runs through the song as well, which sounds quite retro. This sounds more influenced by 1980s electronica than anything else and keeps reminding me of someone like The Smiths.

Perhaps appropriately, "Calm" has a much smoother intro than any of the songs so far. The pace does pick up a little later on, but the song feels more laid back than the earlier tracks all the way through. With the keyboard being to the fore and the tempo being lower than before, there's a touch of a New Order feel to this one. Unlike anything so far, this is one that envelops you, rather than driving you along on the guitar riff although there are parts where the tempo picks up, especially towards the end where it shook me out of the reverie the early parts of the song put me into.

Normal service is resumed for the intro to "In Another World (You Would've Found Yourself By Now)", which turns out to be another driving indie-rock track similar to the opening song. There's a decent chorus, which is a lot of fun, but the sound of the album seems to have come full circle and this isn't a bad song, but it seems strangely repetitive, matching up as closely with "Wraithlike" as it does.

"Let's Get Clinical" is at least a little different from most of the rest of the album, having a much stronger electronica influence and with a down tempo feel. There's a mid-tempo beat driven by the keyboard more than anything else and the New Order comparison seems a little apt once more here. However, this is a song that doesn't really go anywhere and the chorus, unlike some of the others, isn't strong enough to pick the song up. The combination of the slightly dull song and it being the longest track here at just shy of four minutes does mean this is one that outstays its welcome, which isn't common for a Maxïmo Park track. However, there must be something about the track, as whenever a song from this album worms its way into my head, it's this one. It's probably because it's different that it becomes memorable, but this certainly isn't the song I'd choose to remember the album by.

In contrast, "Roller Disco Dreams" has been one of my favourites from the very first play. This may be partially due to being straight after my least favourite track, but this has a very retro 80s indie sound which I love. The driving guitar riff is back, underpinned nicely by the keyboard and there's a great chorus later on that really drags the whole thing up by its bootlaces. There's a wonderful combination of influences here, with the early parts of the song sounding like The Smiths, but the chorus reminding me of The Jam. As these were two bands I enjoyed the first time around, it's no surprise I've ending up loving this track.

Sadly, it wasn't to last, with a very strange keyboard intro prefacing the more common guitar riff at the start of "Tanned". This track has annoyed me ever since the first play, as the guitar riff sounds a lot like another song, but I can't remember which one. Unfortunately, despite this, it's a song that never really gets going for me. It certainly has more energy than "Let's Get Clinical", as it's again once more an up-tempo indie-rock song, but it seems to be missing a certain something that some of the other tracks on the album have, something I can't quite put my finger on.

The bass line that opens "Questing, Not Coasting", always reminds me of something Blondie used to do. The male vocals again give the song something of a Smiths feel again, as this is a mid-tempo indie-rock style song once again. Here, however, for the first time on the album, the lyrics touch me more than the music, possibly as the slightly calmer tempo allows them to come through a little more. I love the evocative feel of lines like "gutters weep with overflow" and whilst this may not be the best track on the album; it feels like one of the better-put together songs. At over 3 ½ minutes, it's one of the longer tracks, but unlike "Let's Get Clinical", it never seems to last too long.

There's a strange electronic opening to "Overland, West of Suez", which sounds like a cross between the buzzer from "Catchphrase" and the opening keyboards to a Bon Jovi song. Fortunately, the indie-rock guitar riff comes in again and it turns into something a little more usual for Maxïmo Park. Once again, the song reminds me of something else I can't put a finger on, with perhaps a touch of a Franz Ferdinand influence again here. With the tempo again being slightly slower and some strange breaks in the song, this is one I can't manage to settle down to enjoy properly. It's not bad, but there is so much better on the album.

The album ends with "I Haven't Seen Her in Ages", which has quite a bouncy little bass line to it and once again has a quite retro feel to it. It's a very quick, simple song and passes by quite pleasantly, with a jaunty mid-tempo pace and a feel of The Smiths or something similar. It's enjoyable enough, but like much of the album, doesn't have anything that sticks out. There is worse in the previous t4racks, but equally there is far better.

This is by no means a bad album, but it's nothing special either, it's merely adequate. In comparison to previous Maxïmo Park releases, it's lacking a certain something. There are some decent tracks here, but there's nothing that particularly jumps out and grabs you and in playing the album straight through, it does get a little samey and almost dull by the end, despite only having a running time of slightly under 38 minutes over the 12 tracks. It's not an album that is long enough to become boring, but somehow it achieves that, as there's not enough variation here.

This is an album I feel would be better played on iTunes in Shuffle mode, mixed in with other tracks, as on their own, some of the songs don't sound too bad, it's just when they're all played together the album seems to be lacking in punch. For those who are Maxïmo Park fans already, this is likely to disappoint you especially, as it is a pale comparison to their earlier work. That said, it's for as little as 99 pence on eBay and whilst this does say something about an album that it's available so cheaply only a couple of months after release, if you like indie-rock generally, it's not a bad price for something that's decent listening, even if it won't stand up to repeated plays.

Summary: An album that has the potential to be good, but just ends up being bland