Originally written by Alex Denney · 3 December 2007
Maximo Park
Karaoke Plays
Label: Warp Records Release Date: 03/12/2007
There’s something innately depressing about the very notion of a fourth single from a middleweight indie band’s lukewarmly-received second album, a pre-emptive melancholy that Maximo Park’s ‘Karaoke Plays’ unfortunately plays right into the hands of.
The pop muscle and swagger of ‘Our Velocity’ has all but evaporated into the sound of a thousand Sunday afternoons spent thumbing the lyric sheets of assorted mediocre indie bands as a schoolkid.
There’s a certain comfort in that, for sure, and ‘Karaoke Plays’ is likeable enough, but it’s debatable exactly how sorry we should be feeling for Maximo Park – they may have fallen foul of the hype machine this time around, but the bottom line is they’ve made a solid second album commanding sales figures which aren’t exactly worthy of your pity.
Ho hums all round, then.
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• 5 Alex Denney's Score