Our Earthly Pleasures is a dense record; twelve tracks clock in at little more than forty-one minutes, but it’s a shattering listen from start to finish  Full text...

Singer/lyricist Paul Smith has grown in confidence, too, successfully incorporating terms that would normally kill any poetic urge, such as "paradigm", and the phrase "codify your utterance, communicate your need", with which he skewers the futility of nightlife in "Your Urge".  Full text...

Vibrant, go-lucky indie-pop.   Full text...

The U.K. indie band's second album has beefed-up sound (from Pixies producer Gil Norton) and increasingly brilliant, not-at-all-pretentious gems like "Girls Who Play Guitars," "Russian Literature" and "Karaoke Plays."  Full text...

The main difference between Our Earthly Pleasures and A Certain Trigger is that if the latter felt almost like a collection of greatest hits - which it eventually turned out to be - the former could almost be described as a concept album.  Full text...

Maximo Park have bravely taken a chance with this album, trying to experiment with their sound rather than settling for what had previously brought them success. Shame they weren't up to the task.  Full text...