Album Review: Maximo Park - The National Health

Maximo Park have seemed to long be one of those bands that every now and then fade into and out of eyesight. They always release cracking albums, but somehow fall in the wayside amongst the gamut of rock releases between their own albums. Now up to their fifth album, Maximo Park have more than certainly established their own aesthetic, and The National Health, aside from being a crossroads of their previous work, may be the album that defines the band.

Starting out with a soft, serene soliloquy delivered by vocalist Paul Smith in When I Was Wild, The National Health immediately establishes itself as a personal record, even with the political criticism of the title track in the second slot. Hips & Lips rides a dark, almost industrial line, with Smith's vocals and spacey keys harking back to obvious inspirations in The Cure and (coincidentally) The Smiths. The Undercurrents brings back the less heavy, more mainstream rock of previous Maximo Park releases while building up the nostalgia through a great hook. Write This Down then jacks it up to eleven, and Smith finds range to belt out what is probably the best vocal track on the album.

Maximo Park might've named this album after their view of the GFC and riots throughout their own native Britain and other parts of Europe, but as far as this scribe's concerned, it may as well be an abstract analogy. There's not a lot of political faff on this record. Instead, Smith's memories of childhood and past loves are delicately wrapped around some of the most spot-on instrumentation the band has provided on recordings.