Maximo Park
Missing Songs
(Warp Records)
Newcastle's Maximo Park won a fair few fans on this side of the Pond last year with the hyper-energetic power-pop A Certain Trigger release. Reason enough, it seems, to collect the cult faves' B-sides on one handy platter.
And handy it is, offering as it does everything from the band's Devo-flavoured cover of John Lennon's Isolation to catchy nuggets like Fear of Falling -- a track that had it been casually slipped into the first pressing of the latest Buzzcocks album would have been hailed as that band's best song in decades. The stupidly danceable A Year of Doubt, meanwhile, is an irresistible lyrical and musical nod to The Smiths.
It's all good fun, really, much like U.K. pop once was and is threatening to finally become again.
A stopgap? A cash-in? No complaints here; and hours of frustrating download searches spared.
Track Listing:
1. Ai9
2. Isolation
3. My Life In Reverse
4. Fear Of Falling
5. I Want You To Leave
6. A Year Of Doubt
7. Trial And Error
8. Stray Talk
9. Hammer Horror
10. Apply Some Pressure (Original Demo Version)
11. Graffiti (Original Demo Version)
12. Once, A Glimpse (Original Demo Version)
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