Maximo Park - Risk To Exist

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‘Risk To Exist’ encourages listeners to sit up and take notice of what’s going on in the world.

Maximo Park have looked out at the world and are not too pleased with what they find.

‘Risk To Exist’, the North East band’s sixth album, doesn’t shy away from tackling the big issues of the day such as the migrant crisis and the elitism rife in this country. ”Throw your arms around me, I’ve come too far and the ocean’s deep,” cries frontman Paul Smith on the title track.

The record pleads for empathy and understanding and is bold in its ambition to balance the personal and political. In lesser hands, this may have been difficult to pull off, but Maximo Park have the experience, ability and creativity to manage it admirably.

These weighty subjects are dressed up in the kind of groove and breathless energy that was most prevalent on the Geordie band’s first two albums, ‘A Certain Trigger’ and ‘Our Earthly Pleasures’. The sharp guitars are backed by fast, almost manic drumming on songs like ‘The Reason I am Here’. ‘I’ll Be Around’ is about the only chance to draw breath as Paul sings over a smooth and tight rhythm section.

‘Risk To Exist’ encourages listeners to sit up and take notice of what’s going on in the world: it might just be the most important album Maximo Park have made yet. Eala MacAlister