Think about professional songwriters - not the coffee-shop singer-songwriter types, but the thankless, faceless middle-aged guys who write infectious hooks for the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Hilary Duff, the guys behind the guys - like the people who wrote the tunes and played the instruments for movie bands like The Wonders (That Thing You Do), and Sweetwater (Almost Famous). How hard must it be to write words for someone else, from a point of view you’ve never experienced? A point of view that may not, technically, exist. It’s a talent, that’s for sure.
Well, what does any of this have to do with Maximo Park? Well, it breaks down like this. Lately, alt-dance-mod-indie (what is this genre called, anyway?) sounds like an open contest to write the songs that the coolest band in the world would write, if the coolest band in the world actually existed. The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery, Kaiser Chiefs, and a whole host of others are all writing songs they think we want to hear, inventing worlds that are just too fabulous to ever be real. And, while the hooks are usually good, it leaves me empty, all the hi-hat and eyeliner and cockney accents. It’s too clean. Nobody really has a boyfriend that looks like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year. I don’t care who told you. They’ve all out-hipstered themselves.
And this is why I like Maximo Park so much. They’re a little late on the scene, and they want to be cool and aloof like everybody else, but they’re not sure how to do it. They try, of course they try, but they fail horribly. The band’s own flawed, insecure personality comes out just enough to make this an empathetic record. I could have a beer with these guys. I could never even get into Franz Ferdiand’s favorite bar. And this makes all the difference. These guys are probably cooler than me. But not that much cooler.
Also, though, I like Maximo Park because their songs are ridiculously catchy. Opener “Signal and Sign” is, all hyperbole aside, really incredibly great. Honestly. Go download it right now and come back. It’s a shame they peak so early, but wow, what a way to open. It takes angular boys-with-guitars songwriting and adds just enough smooth and woozy undertones to make it vaguely accessible. The best songs here do as well: “Going Missing,” “The Coast Is Always Changing,” “Kiss You Better.” “Postcard of a Painting” is just short enough to avoid being pretentious, and even the spoken-word piece “Acrobat” is strangely endearing, since it’s mostly about romanticized failure. There isn’t a bad tune to be found, really. Some are just less catchy than others.
The lead single, “Graffiti,” falls into the too-cool-for-school trap, with its chorus of “I’ll do graffiti if you sing to me in French,” but musically, its undeniably MTV2 ready, and this is probably a good thing. It’s a dance-rock record that succeeds primarily because you can’t dance to it. We need more of those, don’t we? We need faces for a faceless genre. We need Maximo Park. Let’s just hope they never figure out how to write the songs they really want to. |