Maximo Park - 'Books From Boxes'
Songs about books? Easy. 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush, 'Gravity's Rainbow' by The Klaxons and, of course, McFly's musical interpretation of the Cliff Notes to Of Mice and Men. Breathtaking, that one.
So it's no surprise that Maximo Park should jump aboard the literary bandwagon with 'Books From Boxes'. By rights, they should be in the driving seat. After all, Paul Smith has long been known to sing from a mysterious red book on stage (which I can exclusively reveal is a bound first edition of Jilly Cooper's Riders).
Right from the starting line - "Night falls and towns become circuit boards, we can beat the sun as long as we keep moving" - Smith's lyrics could have been lifted from a classic novel.
Always poetic, but never straying into pompous territory, the song is simple and honest, charting the end of a relationship by its "paper trail", living life through books.
Props to the Park for bringing together my twin passions. Props for the twangy REM-y guitar-solo and for covering The Proclaimers on the b-side. Props to the Smith for looking like Papa Lazarou in the video. Another solid 4 for the Geordies.
Download: Out now
CD Released: June 11th
(Nickie Latham)
Comments
Papa Lazarou? I'd have to disagree...I kept thinking he reminded me of Paddy Mcaloon(singer of crazy 80's group Prefab Sprout, kids). Oh rubbish...i've just shown me age.
grumble.
Ace song though.
[Quick. Mention something fabulously cutting edge to restore your age ambiguity. In spite of any possible Lazarou/McAloon comparisons, I do find Mr Smith a little bit dreamy. - Nickie L]
erm...ok...That Dizee Rascal is quite a fellow...Fix up look sharp.Ahem.
Mr Smith is dreamy...I've asked for the hat over t'internet but no success.
I think you need to engineer a chartblog interview which involves him singing King of Rock and Roll.
Lovely, lovely, LOVELY song. I'm totally addicted to it! Still remind me of a Chris De Burgh song though.
what can i say.......indie music really isnt my thing, but maximo park are prooving with their new album to be the exception. its not annoying indie which is good for a start. i did buy the 1st album but never listened to it so i got rid of that, which was the reason why i didnt want to buy the new one, so instead i borrowed it from a friend. the songs are mixed up with all my other music on random so i cant say ive heard the whole album yet, but what i have heard i havnt disliked. im not even going to try and compare it to the music that i do go out and buy because i really dont think i can. but, this song, for indie, sort of feels different. that doesnt make any sense does it? hmm, the music sounds quite mature, theres just somethng about it. its just different for me i suppose. i like this song, but thats not what makes it good, i dont know what it is about this song but it feels different and i like that. so is it the song or the feeling the song has that i like? i dont know, but good on you guys anyway.
whats the mcfly song the review talks about?? im confused lol
[Sorry Livs. There's no McFly song about the Cliff notes to Of Mice And Men, that was just a silly joke. - Fraser]