A Certain Trigger
The debut long player from the Newcastle quintet seems poised to be the latest British import to hit big in the states, and it’s one of the more deserving entries on that rapidly expanding list. With ringing guitars and insistent synths driving the anthemic charge of the songs, A Certain Trigger is the arena rock album Wire never made. It opens in spectacular form with the reckless ‘Signal & Sign’ and earlier singalong singles ‘Apply Some Pressure’ and ‘Graffiti’.
Maximo Park’s songs are so charged that it’s all the more painful when they don’t click. Like most other albums thrown together from a couple buzz-heavy singles and hastily written new tracks, A Certain Trigger runs out of gas before the end, filling its allotment with subpar ideas and throwaway gimmicks. (‘Acrobat’, a laughable spoken word piece over an instrumental track that sounds like an 80s soundtrack version of Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’ is, inexcusably, the longest song on the album.) Listening to, say, the urgent keyboards adrift in the otherwise uninteresting ‘I Want You To Stay’, it’s hard not to think that this is the unavoidable result of the incessant search for the next big thing.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to slouch off towards the Bowery Ballroom to pick up some Mando Diao tickets before the trendspotters snap them all up. I bet they’re going to be bigger than the second coming.
May 16WarpTurning and turning in the narrowing gyre, the pump-and-dump hype cycle accelerates, its sheer centrifugal force throwing off all but the stickiest bands; things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, another mere retro post-punk band is loosed upon the world. Or, if you prefer: the Kaiser Chiefs are so last week.Mark Asch
